Modern Warfare 3: Is this the next Call of Duty game?

Modern Warfare 3 could be announced as soon as March 1.

Modern Warfare 3? All signs point to yes. Here, a screenshot from a teaser site called findmakarov.com.

findmakarov.com

February 26, 2011

Call of Duty fans, rejoice. If a new teaser website is any indication, Modern Warfare 3 – the as-of-yet-mythical sequel to the ludicrously popular Modern Warfare 2 – could be announced as soon as March 1. The evidence is over at findmakarov.com, which displays a bright green clock, with numbers in the classic Modern Warfare font. The countdown clock should reach zero in about four days – right at the beginning of March.

For those unfamiliar with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Makarov is a fiery Russian villain; by the end of the game, he had managed to elude capture. "Find Makarov," in other words, could be interpreted as the mission statement of Modern Warfare 3 (or whatever Activision decides to call it.) There is another clue, as well: Several tech sites have reported receiving promotional dog tags, bearing the names of characters from Modern Warfare 2.

In recent years, of course, the Call of Duty series has become one of the most popular – and most profitable – entertainment franchises in the world. The most recent Call of Duty game, the Cold War-themed Black Ops, generated $360 million in its first day of sales alone. Just to give you a sense of scale, that's five times more than the cash generated by the biggest Hollywood première and 15 times more than the fastest selling CDs.

RELATED: Does Call of Duty: Black Ops redefine 'blockbuster'?

"Even insiders were taken aback by just how big the Black Ops launch really was," Scott Steinberg, head of the game-consulting firm TechSavvy, told the Monitor earlier this year. "You don't see the same level of [lavishness] for game studios as Hollywood stars, but the world is voting with their wallets and with their time."

No details have yet been released by Activision on the new Call of Duty game, but it's safe to say one thing: It's gonna be a cash cow.

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