And the next Call of Duty will be...

...Call of Duty: Ghosts.

...Call of Duty: Ghosts. That's according to a mistakenly published (and now removed) listing posted by megaconglomoshop Tesco. The posting, showing the PS3 version of the game, stated a December release, and lists Infinity Ward as the developer. That's as expected, given the annual franchise swapsies between them and Treyarch.

With no official announcement from Activision, further details are light. According to rumours that surfacedlast month, Ghosts is a Modern Warfare spin-off set in the future. It's suggested that a major plot event will force characters to use current-day weapons. Beyond that, if I were to wildly speculate:

Someone will be shot. At some point, you'll be informed that you're "Oscar Mike". The plot will be jingoistic and morally dubious bobbins, but no-one will care because hey, multiplayer.

I'd also like to nominate the Ghost Knifefishas the official mascot of CoD:Ghosts. Just look at that thing! If the final cutscene doesn't involve the protagonist being incapacitated by ultimate villain Gruffman McBadingtons, groping around in a just-in-reach puddle, pulling out a Knifefish and throwing it skull-first into your opponent, then it'll be a criminally missed opportunity.

While the PS3 listing suggests current-gen consoles, it's more than likely that Activision will be keen to release the game on every conceivable format, including next-gen consoles - hopefully meaning the PC version will get a long overdue graphical bump.

Here's that box art in full. Just pretend the PS3 logo isn't there. And that we still use boxes.

Thanks, OPM.