“There seems to be a great deal of speculation about the next Call of Duty project. Let me be clear that we are not revealing yet,” a spokesperson told Kotaku. “Anything indicating otherwise is a hoax.”
That would include anything next week. The website FindMakarov.com – which invokes the name of a character tied to Modern Warfare 2′s infamous “No Russian” mission – has a countdown timer set to expire at 10 a.m. EST on Wednesday. The Game Developers Conference is next week in San Francisco; Electronic Arts will be showcasing Modern Warfare competitor Battlefield 3 there at that time.
In the realm of military shooters, Activision and Electronic Arts have a plainly antagonistic rivalry. Their Battlefield and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series are direct competitors. Further, the founders of Call of Duty’s original studio, fired by Activision last year, went on to form Respawn Entertainment, a studio now allied with Electronic Arts.
The countdown site incorporates green text on a black background – evocative of Modern Warfare’s own viral marketing in the past – and apparently uses the same typeface associated with the game.
The Activision representative declined to comment on the use of character names from the Modern Warfare series or the apparently deliberate attempt to mimic its marketing.
Kotaku contacted an Electronic Arts representative for comment. Any reply from the publisher will be updated here.
Alex
Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 11:49 AMIf this is Respawn and/or EA doing something to mess with Activision, I like it. Also, wasn’t Makarov killed in MW2 anyway?
M.Garling
Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 1:32 PMMakarov wasn’t killed, he was never seen again in person after the No Russian mission. During that stuff at the plane graveyard Soap and that other guy were chasing after that General voiced by Lance Henriksen (can’t remember the character’s name). They close in on him and the characters converse with Makarov over radio or something, saying they’ll still hunt him, but for the time being their enemy’s enemy is their friend.
Or some such BS. It was a ridiculous story and should never be continued, they should just reboot, everyone else is doing it…
RandomNoob
Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 3:01 PMnah he gets away but helps you off Shepard. And I agree, epic lols if its EA/Respawn fucking with activision.
Pakka
Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 2:21 PMWay too soon for them to announcing. None of the other 3 COD games were announced so soon and look at how successful & record breaking they were.
E3 is the earliest they would announce I reckon – or since COD is just in its own league with sales and popularity, an announcement AROUND that time but as its own separate to E3 would make sense.
Matthew
Monday, February 28, 2011 at 1:21 AMif i remember correctly MW2 was teased around late march-april, though i dont remeber when BO was teased but it had the tv screens?
Barry
Monday, February 28, 2011 at 9:29 AMOne thing I don’t understand when web sites like Kotaku report these things, why don’t you do a search on who or what company purchased the domain name findmakarov.com and then you can hit the owner.
Barry
Monday, February 28, 2011 at 9:32 AMHere is the domain name owner and more info.
Here is the WHOIS output for findmakarov.com.
Click here to search for unregistered domain names.
Registrant:
Contactprivacy.com
96 Mowat Ave
Toronto, ON M6K 3M1
CA
Domain name: FINDMAKAROV.COM
Administrative Contact:
contactprivacy.com, findmakarov.com@contactprivacy.com
96 Mowat Ave
Toronto, ON M6K 3M1
CA
+1.4165385457
Technical Contact:
contactprivacy.com, findmakarov.com@contactprivacy.com
96 Mowat Ave
Toronto, ON M6K 3M1
CA
+1.4165385457
Registration Service Provider:
(mt) Media Temple, dnsadmin@mediatemple.net
877-578-4000
310-564-2007 (fax)
http://www.mediatemple.net/go/support/
To make contact, or to request technical support please first visit the
(mt) AccountCenter: http://www.mediatemple.net/go/support/
Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 14-Feb-2011.
Record expires on 14-Feb-2012.
Record created on 14-Feb-2011.
Registrar Domain Name Help Center:
http://tucowsdomains.com
Domain servers in listed order:
NS2.MEDIATEMPLE.NET
NS1.MEDIATEMPLE.NET
Domain status: ok
cornelisu
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 3:11 AMWhat a lame attempt to capitalize off Call of Duty series. I hope nobody pays this company any attention, as all it did was disappoint all the fans of the COD series for teasing us with their crappy film.
I hope we get some Modern Warfare 3 news at E3 since it’s not going to happen at GDC. It’s being predicted that the game will do $300 million in sales here http://mwarfare3.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3-to-do-300-million-in-sales-162. I think that’s about right with the terrible gameplay of Black Ops, the hacking, and really not many changes being made to the franchise so less people will be buying and it won’t shatter any records.