This year’s Call of Duty: Vanguard hasn’t even been released yet, but that hasn’t stopped the rumor mill from going into overdrive over next year’s game. Renowned Call of Duty and Battlefield leaker Tom Henderson has claimed Call of Duty 2022 will be Modern Warfare 2, following on from 2019’s Modern Warfare reboot. VGC later added to the rumor, stating the game will feature US forces battling Columbian drug cartels.
The rumor of the game’s title shouldn’t come as much of a surprise bearing in mind the Call of Duty games are now largely following a three year development plan. After Treyarch developed last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Sledgehammer behind this year’s Call of Duty: Vanguard, next year’s game would be the turn of Infinity Ward, the developer behind the Modern Warfare franchise. According to Henderson, the game is currently codenamed Project Cortez, a name that first appeared as part of the huge GeForce Now leak earlier this week.
It looks like Call of Duty: 2022 is codenamed Project Cortez
It’s expected to be a sequel to Modern Warfare 2019.
— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) September 13, 2021
VGC went on to corroborate the rumor and added the game will feature a campaign “involving US special forces fighting a covert war against Columbian drug cartels.” This is a similar plot to the movie Clear and Present Danger where the CIA is battling a Columbian drug cartel led by Colonel Félix Cortez, likely to be the inspiration behind the game’s codename.
It’s going to be quite a while before we find out if any of these rumors are true seeing as Activision will be concentrating on getting Call of Duty: Vanguard out of the door, and it’s been revealing new Call of Duty titles later and later in the year, thanks in part to Warzone and the live game seasonal model of the yearly releases. Don’t expect to learn anything officially until around August 2022.
Focusing on this year’s Vanguard launch, players have been able to try out several of the multiplayer modes already through the PlayStation-exclusive alpha and beta, the latter of which will continue over the next couple of weekends. Call of Duty: Warzone players will get a Vanguard-themed Pacific map later this year. Vanguard releases on November 5 and the game is predicted to be the best selling title of 2021, following industry trends over the last decade.
[Source: Tom Henderson, VGC]
