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Infinity Ward has largely moved on, but Activision still has high expectations for the Call of Duty brand. In today’s investment call, CEO Bobby Kotick said that the title represents “the biggest investment that we’ve ever made in the launch of a title.” (via Gamasutra)

Kotick cited Call of Duty’s “incredibly broad appeal” as the main reason to throw the full weight of their resources behind the title. The Treyarch-developed shooter will also be competing directly against EA’s Medal of Honor revival, which is also due this fall.

“There’s a lot of competition,” Kotick acknowledged, “and this is something that we think has the potential to break through and appeal to a much broader consumer base than ever before.”

There was never much thought about whether there were more Call of Duty games in Treyarch’s future after Black Ops, but it is a bit of a surprise to learn that’s apparently all that now lies in Treyarch’s future. Speaking to CVG, Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia said they’ve become solely dedicated to Activision’s blockbuster FPS franchise.

“Treyarch is a 100 percent Call of Duty studio — and it has been for a long time now, long before any of [the Infinity Ward] events occurred,” Lamia said, immediately dispelling speculation this newly revealed exclusive focus may be a result of CoD creator Infinity Ward’s gutting earlier this year. “We focused all of our efforts on creating the best Call of Duty game we possibly can and what that meant is not working on anything else.

“We are a multiple team studio and focusing on Call of Duty and Call of Duty gameplay meant focusing all of our teams on that,” Lamia continued. One result of this has been the formation of a dedicated multiplayer team inside Treyarch, which is something the studio didn’t have for their past Call of Duty games, Call of Duty 3 and Call of Duty: World at War.

Now that Infinity Ward has managed to implode into a mere shadow of what it once was, the Call of Duty franchise has been left in shambles.  This leaves the once venerable series in a position of once again having to prove itself to the hardcore gaming audience.  Treyarch attempted to take a step in the right direction with their release of the first true “in-game” trailer for the newly announced, Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Check out the full uncut trailer below:

Does this look like a worth successor to the Call of Duty crown?  Oddly enough, I think that the trailer shows that the team over at Treyarch might be moving away from the passable mediocrity that they pioneered in Call of Duty 3.  Call me crazy, but with added features like co-op already confirmed to be included in the game, this might be just the kickstart that Activision is hoping for.

What do you think?

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Despite all of the drama that has been going on at Infinity Ward as of late, it appears that they managed to find some time to whip up some new maps… you know, in between filing lawsuits and all.

Entitled the Resurgence Map Pack, this batch of online killzones includes five maps, of which three are exclusive to to the sequel. Much like the Stimulus Map Pack, this batch also has two maps that are recycled from the original Modern Warfare, but that doesn’t mean they are bad, right?

When speaking on the content of the newest map pack on Major Nelson’s podcast, he let the following details ship about each map:

• Trailer Park is a largely corridor based map, leading to consistently tight quarters combat.
• Fuel, as the name would imply, is an oil refinery and consists of large amounts of open spaces.
• Carnival is a clowns worst nightmare including fun distractions like a farris wheel.
• Vacant is the Russian office complex featured in the first Modern Warfare.
• Strike is another re-imagined map consisting of urban areas and hotels.

Adding to the juicy information is a batch of screenshots that you can’t afford to miss.  So have you gotten re-excited for more bug ridden combat? I know I am!

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It seems that today may have been an exceptionally bad day for Activision as 7 more developers have left Infinity Ward.

Activision will split up bonus and redistribute among studio, it says.

Infinity Ward will undergo significant change in the wake of ex-staffers’ bitter legal row with Activision, an insider claims.

Activision media manager Dan Amrich says that the ongoing legal row – pitting ex-studio heads Zampella and West against the publisher – will spur a revolution at the Modern Warfare studio.

"IW still exists," he said. "[Though] obviously its identity and company culture are going to go through huge changes in the coming months and years."

Explicit Gamer, "It’s no secret that things are falling apart within the forces behind some of the most popular Call of Duty games, insiders seem all too aware."

Former Infinity Ward head Vince Zampella has given a brief comment regarding his and Jason West’s sacking by Activision last month.

IncGamers’ Tim McDonald serves up another round-up of the news surrounding Infinity Ward since studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella left, marinated in sarcasm and seasoned with a hint of speculation.

From the article: "Back at the start of March, we ran a column with the rather self-explanatory title ‘What We Know About The Infinity Ward Debacle’ which covered the departures of Jason West and Vince Zampella, the studio heads of the Modern Warfare developer, from the company. We collated the facts and the speculation, weighed up the possibilities, and told you not just What We Know but What We Think. We’re good to you like that.

"These past few weeks have seen a flurry of activity from the beleaguered developer and now seems as good a time as any to head back and try to make sense of things."