Some datamining seems to have confirmed the big rumor about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III since Activision started acknowledging its very existence.
As reported by Insider Gaming, code found in the PlayStation database confirms that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is literally DLC for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. Insider Gaming worked with Twitter user PlayStationSize to corroborate and confirm this information.
What they found was that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III content was showing up in the database as add-ons for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. They also found that the beta codes that will be used for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III have the same concept ID as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II did last year. What this means is that they are just reissuing the same codes.
Insider Gaming also claims that Call of Duty will get its own hub, at least on PlayStation. A new Call of Duty Hub will show Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, and Call of Duty: Warzone under one menu. No word if Call of Duty: Warzone is also getting an upgrade from 2.0 to 3.0.
A lot of the speculation around this game has been if Activision will be able to rally around enough content to make Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III worth the full retail price it is expected to go for. Insider Gaming, in fact, also shared that the expected price for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare IIIis $ 70.
It would seem the answer to that depends entirely on how big Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III originally was when it was intended to be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II DLC. It seems to have been implied that Activision planned for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II to be an even bigger release than it turned out to be.
Of course, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II earned $ 1 billion in ten days, and is one of the most successful games in the franchise. But what I mean by this, is if Activision’s developers had plans to make Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II DLC that really was so big that it would feel like players got two games’ worth from that DLC. In which case, then we are just getting one full sized game later this year.
Lest we forget, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is the result of Activision having to fill in that odd gap which is the last year that Sony has on their exclusive marketing contract. We do all expect Microsoft to finalize their deal with Activision before this game even comes out. And after all that, Call of Duty will be a Microsoft franchise, with nearly all future releases tied to the ten year deals Microsoft has signed with their competitors in the industry.
