CALL OF DUTY ONLINE Confirmed for a Chinese Release

There have been many rumblings about the Call of Duty franchise stepping into the online arena. No, we are not simply talking about the multiplayer offering you get from the console games. What we are referring to is an all-out online offering, similar to what Battlefield does with Battlefield.Play4Free.Com.

These rumbling first started back last year when Activision boss, Eric Hirshberg, first mentioned that they acquired Tencent. Who is Tencent you ask? They are the same people that handling Warface, a Crytek shooter. So people naturally connected the dots and started to assume that perhaps Call of Duty was going to enter the Free-to-Play market. 

Well now Tencent and Activision have released the announcement trailer for the upcoming title, and have also launched the game's website. But there is one thing to note with this trailer, there are only maps from Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty 4 shown here. No Black Ops or even Modern Warfare 3 titles are shown at all. Perhaps they want those titles to "live" a little longer on the consoles rather than port them over to this offering, so that's why they are using much older maps. Either way, more will be revealed soon we hope. 

In a press release, the company goes on to say:

This new model will allow players the ability to personalize their weapons, characters and equipment like never before in a Call of Duty game.

Using an in-game store, players can enhance their weapons, gear, and perks built specifically for the Chinese market. The new game will also bring a variety of game modes and maps and features an original story told through a series of Special Operations missions based on the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare universe.

Do you think this is a good direction for the Call of Duty franchise? Or are you done with COD and have moved on to other games?