Infinity Ward enlisted for Call of Duty 6

Activision confirms original developer will return to series next year, talks about monetizing online play with "Day One Advantage" experience acceleration.

Treyarch's Call of Duty: World at War hasn't even stormed the beaches yet, but Activision is already talking about the next full installment in the series. In a half-day analysts' presentation yesterday, Activision Publishing president and CEO Mike Griffith confirmed that franchise creator Infinity Ward would be returning to develop the next Call of Duty game, which he referred to as Call of Duty 6 and pegged as a 2009 release.

As for World at War, Griffith talked about Activision's efforts to monetize the franchise's online play. Specifically, he said that the Treyarch game would have three times the downloadable content as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and mentioned "Day One Advantage" premium content. Later in the presentation, the Day One Advantage was explained as "the ability to accelerate your experience points when you play online."

Griffith said that the publisher was looking hard at additional ways of expanding the game's business model, and noted there was "tremendous opportunity" to bring the series to new "theaters, game designs, and plotlines" in the future.