The rumored Modern Warfare follow-up, Call of Duty: Ghosts, may have been accidentally confirmed by a UK retailer. Tesco, through its Tesco Direct service, put up a listing for the game that was discovered earlier today.
The page was quickly pulled, but not before screencaps of it were grabbed by a number of sources. In addition to revealing the title's existence, the page also places the release date at December 30, 2013, although this is quite possibly a placeholder.
More importantly though, the listing reveals what appears to be box art for the game, depicting a soldier in a very familiar looking mask. It also sports the Infinity Ward logo, which makes sense as last year's Call of Duty installment, Black Ops 2, was developed by Treyarch.
The current thinking is that Activision may be looking to drop the Modern Warfare moniker following the messy departure of Jason West and Vince Zampella. The high-profile feud over royalties was a major blow to the Infinity Ward brand, and the out of court settlement that followed was likely a pretty healthy amount of money. It would make sense that Activision would be looking for a way to relaunch the core franchise under a new name.
Additionally, many are speculating that the trademark skull mask of Modern Warfare 2 character Ghost may indicate that this is a prequel to the events of the second game. Ghost was a popular character when that game came out, due almost entirely to the fact that he had a cool look. It'd be nice to give the character some personality to match the outfit, and a prequel game centering around him would be an interesting way to do it.
This would also fall in with a previous confirmation that Captain Price's voice actor was returning for a future game.
To add to this rumor's credibility, a purportedly leaked Target ad has been making its way around the Internet, depicting a pre-order bonus for Call of Duty: Ghosts, as well as a November 5, 2013 release date.