It's looking more and more like this year's Call of Duty is going to be a sequel to 2010's Black Ops. A retail source forwarded the following image from a poster received today.

It's been widely speculated that this year's Call of Duty game will be a sequel to Black Ops, which was developed by Treyarch.

Also, the framing narrative for 2010's Black Ops was a debriefing where elements of a massive secret conspiracy were revealed so the text on the poster could be referencing that.

Also, the date on the poster is most likely a reveal date and not a release date. Call of Duty games typically come out later in the year to take advantage of the busy holiday shopping season.

In February, a French video games site found themselves banned—and then unbanned—from Activision events after reporting that a Black Ops sequel would arrive in 2012 after an Amazon leak earlier this year. That overreaction led many to think that the information in the leak was right on the money.

When contacted, Activision declined to comment to Kotaku about the image.

A preteen who killed a friend inside a Georgia home was playing Activision's popular first-person-shooter before the fatal shots were fired.

According to ABC affiliate WJBF, three young boys were playing Call of Duty: Black Ops on the night of March 26th, when the eldest of them picked up a semi-automatic that belonged to his parents. The 12-year-old boy pointed the gun around and pulled the trigger several times. The weapon discharged one of those times, inflicting wounds that killed 10-year-old Hunter Morris.

The case—which has led to a charge of involuntary manslaughter—is being called an accident. Still, the television station reporting the incident spoke to child psychiatrist Dr. Dale Peeples, who said that playing games like Black Ops could have contributed to this terrible event:

"A game that is rated M for Mature, probably doesn't belong in the hands of a 12 year old"

While it's common to dismiss media outlets' convenient linkages between violent video games and crime as sensationalist, this time—because of the closeness of the crime and the gameplay—it might not be as easy. Authorities are still investigating the killing.

Investigators: Kids Were Playing Violent Video Game Before 10-Year-Old Was Shot And Killed [WJBF.com]

Remember that purported Activision blacklisting of French website Gameblog that had everyone up in arms over the weekend? And that comment by Activision that said everything was just a big misunderstanding?

Well, whatever that misunderstanding was, it's been cleared up. Gameblog reported that they received a call today that effectively resumes communications with Activision. Editor-in-chief Grégory Szriftgiser sent Kotaku the English translation of this post, which announces the re-establishment of relations:

Following the events that shook our columns those past few days, which Activision USA refered to as a "misunderstanding" they were working on to "resolve", Activision France contacted us by phone to tell us that they wanted "to work again" with Gameblog and were "glad" to do so.

They made clear that they wanted to resume everything that was severed past friday, including the sending of the games, attendance to the publisher's events, and the contacts between their media agency and our advertisement agency.

Gameblog is obviously glad of the decision Activision took to come back on its original position, and hopes that this kind of situation will not happen again, to anyone."

We're still not clear on what exactly that the misunderstanding was here, though, and have reached out to find more.

Yesterday, reports that a sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops would hit this year circulated all over the internet, sourced to a product page that went live on Amazon. Gameblog.fr reported on this apparent slip-up, as did other French websites, but they refused to pull the story when asked by Call of Duty publisher Activision.

That refusal resulted in Activision apparently cutting off Gameblog.fr's access to their titles and media events, effectively killing the site's ability to cover the biggest games publisher around.

Kotaku reached out to Gameblog editor Grégory Szriftgiser (known on the site by the nom de plume RaHaN) to get his account of how this story and its repercussions happened. What follows are Szriftgiser's answers to questions sent via e-mail.

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Kotaku: How long has Gameblog been around? How long have you been covering video games?

Szriftgiser: Gameblog.fr is has been live for 5 years now. We created and funded the company ourselves a little before launch. "We", here, stands for several journalists including myself, who have been covering video games professionally for 15 years or more, first in print magazines like Joypad, Joystick, the French PlayStation Magazine Officiel or later Gaming. Some did TV and Radio as well, and some of us have been writing about games professionally for up to 20 years now.

Kotaku: Can you describe the sequence of events as they happened? How did you find out about Amazon's product page? When did your article go up?

Szriftgiser: The journalist who wrote the first newspiece—"Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 confirmed by Amazon "—Julien Chièze (who is one of the co-founders of the company with others and myself), originally spotted the info on Twitter.

He then proceeded with verifying it, by witnessing it first-hand on Amazon.fr and getting a screenshot their product webpage. The French website Jeuxvideo.com also had done a piece of its own, with their own screenshots, by the time our article was posted, and this was included as another reference in our own piece. We also had confirmation later that several people had received the Amazon France newsletter in the meantime, with a reference to Call of Duty : Black Ops 2 in it.

Our article was posted at 1:05 p.m. French time (that's CET). Activision first tried to call me at 2:16 p.m., but I couldn't answer, then sent an email (subject : "Pulling of a newspiece - URGENT") to both Julien and myself at 2:24 p.m., asking to "please take down the newspiece now", that "Activision didn't make any announcement", that "Amazon took upon themselves to publish this information without consulting [Activision]" and that it was "asked as a favor". I returned the phone call at 2:30 p.m., during which Activision asked the same thing, as a favor, insisting that this was a very serious matter to them for internal reasons they couldn't elaborate on and that the other major web outlets had already taken down their piece.

I explained that I couldn't do this and why (mainly, that Activision didn't have any right to intervene in our editorial, that it was newsworthy to us, that our job was first and foremost to inform our readers, that the newspiece didn't argue that it was anything official on Activision's end, and was correctly phrased to reflect it, notably, with the question mark), at which point Activision argued that they were disappointed - they asked that we please consider it "with all the consequences this could lead to". I agreed to do so, told them I would get back to them later to give them my final decision. They were unreachable for the rest of the afternoon. After business hours, I had a short text conversation in which I re-stated that we wouldn't pull the article, and asked if we should consider ourselves blacklisted as a result. It was around 8:30 p.m., and Activision answered we would resume the conversation by phone the next morning.

The newspiece stayed online untouched during the night.

The next morning, we talked on the phone. They tried again to explain they needed us to pull the article, I refused again. They insisted again that it would seriously deteriorate the professional relationship we had, that we weren't fully aware of the consequences this could have, and that they had already contacted their Advertising Agency (which buys ad space for them). I asked them again if we should consider ourselves blacklisted, and more precisely if my journalist (another one) was still to attend the preview event of Transformers: Fall of Cybertron that was planned next week and to which we were already invited. Activision said no. They also made clear that the relationship was to be severed, all advertisement plans cancelled, games not sent, and invitations to later events cancelled as well. I explained that if this was their decision indeed, we had to inform our readers of it, and would do so later in the day.

We then proceeded with writing the article stating we were blacklisted, and we published it at 3:01 p.m.

Kotaku: Was there any other additional detail on the Amazon page about Black Ops 2?

Szriftgiser: There was no additional detail on the Amazon page other than the title "Call of Duty : Black Ops 2" and a pre-order price at 69,99 euros.

Kotaku: What was the tone of the call from Activision?
Szriftgiser: The call(s) from Activision were professional, as we've been working together for 15 years. It was several phone calls as explained above. At no point did those calls sound "angry" on either side of the conversation, but I would say that Activision's spokesperson was rather agitated and preoccupied, obviously.

Kotaku: What did they say to you? Were you calm in your reactions? What was their justification for making these demands of you?

Szriftgiser: See above. Again, there were no insults or angry talk or anything at any point, the conversation was obviously tense, but professional. Their justification for making these demands remains unclear, other than it was a serious issue for them, and that it was, it seems, putting people in difficult positions (though I don't know at this point if they were meaning people at Activision or Amazon).

Kotaku: Did you speak to anyone from the sites who took down their coverage? Why do you think they capitulated, if that's what happened?

Szriftgiser: Regarding Jeuxvideo.com, with whom I haven't had any contacts regarding this whatsoever, I don't know what their exact position is. All I know, from my discussions with Activision, is that they were contacted in the same way we were, and agreed to take down their piece.

Regarding JVN.com, I also know from the discussions with Activision that they were contacted and subsequently took down their article. I didn't speak with JVN.com until after we posted the article "Activision blacklists Gameblog". I then had a written conversation on a wider angle about our views on the work, in which JVN argued they pulled the piece, after being asked to do so, because they couldn't verify the info first-hand, and additionally that they didn't consider the info to be important.

It is important to understand that we talked about those sites pulling up their articles (and proved it with screenshots) in order to clearly establish that there was pressure put on several outlets by Activision, and not just us ; that we were not making this story up. It was important to us, as well, that we made it clear that such pressures were unacceptable, and we hope that this event will help everyone in refusing those pressures. Obviously, we regret this course of events, but we had no other choice than to proceed as I explained.

Kotaku: Were you a fan of Call of Duty? Are you still? If Black Ops 2 winds up being this year's CoD game, will you buy it?

Szriftgiser: I am a fan of Call of Duty (as my reviews of the previous games in the series show). I remain a fan of Call of Duty. I will buy Black Ops 2 if it turns out to be this year's CoD (but at this point, I think we're all pretty sure it's going to be), and would buy it as well if it was something else. Most definitely, we will buy it in order to be able to review it, as we know we will not be invited to any official event related to this game, or any other Activision game for that matter.

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Kotaku has asked Activision for comment on Gameblog's supposed blacklisting and will be happy to include their comment if they provide any.

UPDATE: Activision's responded to Kotaku regarding this matter with the following statement:

Activision doesn't blacklist journalists. We believe this was a misunderstanding and are working towards a resolution.

French game site Gameblog.fr reported earlier today that Amazon's French digital storefront leaked details about the next installment in Activision's blockbuster FPS series.

The site claims that a product page for the sequel to the 2010 Call of Duty title went live on Amazon.fr and that, after they reported this, Activision France requested that the story be killed. When they refused, Gameblog.fr claims that the publisher blacklisted them, disinviting them from a Transformers: Fall of Cybertron preview event and pulling planned advertising from the media outlet.

Gameblog.fr also claims that other sites that covered the story were coerced into pulling their coverage off the internet after similar threats by Activision.

It seems odd that Activision would come down so hard on media outlets for reporting a product listing when the gaffe was on Amazon's part. All of the above should be taken with grains of salt. We've reached out to Amazon France and Activision and will update the story if we hear back.

UPDATE: Joystiq's reporting further evidence that Black Ops 2 may be a possibility, finding the Linkedin profile of an artist employed by a studio that's worked on past Activision projects. Including, surprise, Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Activision blackliste Gameblog [Gameblog.fr]

When the S.W.A.T. arrived at a North Texas home in Lewisville, there were told a shooter was in the house. There was, but it wasn't the shooter the police expected. It was a kid playing Call of Duty: Black Ops.

On Monday a little after 5pm, a teenage boy was playing Call of Duty: Black Ops on Xbox Live. He and his friends were hanging out and talking in an online lobby between matches. According to the teen, whose parents asked that he not be named: "Some dude just popped out of nowhere, and basically said he's going to hack me, he's going to get my information, call the swat team over to my front yard."

The teenager ignored the threat and kept playing with his friends on Xbox Live.

According to Channel 11 news in Dallas, a message was sent to the city via the AT&T Instant Message Relay Service, which is designed for hearing impaired individuals to contact someone via telephone. The message stated that someone had been shot, and there was a shooter inside the house.

Officers arrived at the boy's Lewisville home, but did not see any signs of a shooting. The boy's parents noticed a S.W.A.T. encircling the house. One officer began calling the boy's name with a bullhorn.

"We were all scared, out of our minds," he told Channel 11. "Didn't understand why they were here. We thought there was some stranger some dude running around our house, hiding behind the boat. We didn't know. We didn't expect nothing."

Frightened, the family called 9-1-1, and the operator connected them to the police, who told them to come out of their house.

The teen said he didn't know who pulled the prank. Police are looking into the matter, and trying to get a subpoena to get the necessary info to snag the gamer who sounded this false alarm.

Call Of Duty Game Leads To Prank Lewisville 911 Call [CBS Thanks Daniel!]

Actor Gary Oldman has a long and lengthy resume with varied roles. But the one that concerns us today, and Conan O'Brien, is his work as Viktor Reznov from Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops.

In this Conan clip, Oldman voices some Reznov and talks about doing "battle chatter", or shouting commands over music and explosions to players.

I don't know which is cooler: Oldman doing Reznov or Oldman doing Reznov in a purple bow tie.

Gary Oldman: Call of Duty Black Ops Screamovers [TeamCoco.com]

Treyarch's 2011 Christmas card is also a neat little Call of Duty: Black Ops ornament, all ready to be hung in a tree.

If you're a big fan, feel free to print these out, trim the excess, tape them together and hang it in your own tree.

Hey, where's my Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 ornament Infinity Ward?

Battlefield 3 couldn't do it and neither could Skyrim it seems, Call of Duty, two Call of Duty games actually, remain the most played games on Xbox Live for the week of Nov. 21.

Yes, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim isn't even an online game, but Major Nelson's weekly list counts all games played on connected Xbox 360s. So the game itself doesn't have to be an online game, the player just needs to be logged in.

That in mind, it's pretty impressive that single-player only Skyrim is in the number three spot, bumping Battlefield 3 from its purchase, but not touching Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 or Call of Duty: Black Ops from their one and two spots, respectively.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's record-breaking, first-day sales are impressive, but almost more impressive is the life these Call of Duty games seem to have online.

This morning I hopped online to see how the past four year's worth of Call of Duty games were doing online. Yes, people still do play the original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. I did the same thing at the beginning of the year, to see how the games were doing. Let's compare.

Each of these games show the current number of online players when you log in to find a match on the Xbox 360. I happen to only have all of these games on this platform, so I wasn't able to check out the PC or PS3. Here's what I found:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 had 776,152 people logged in shortly before 11 a.m. eastern on Veterans Day, a work day for many. Last year's Treyarch-developed game, Call of Duty: Black Ops, had 196,648 players logged in. The previous Infinity Ward-developed game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 still had 62,541 people playing it. Remember, that's a 2-year-old game and it's a weekday. Call of Duty: World at War, a game set during World War II, still had 5,800 people playing it. Finally, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the game that helped propel the series into the stratosphere, was being played by 3,309 people four years after the game was released. Not bad.

Back in January of this year I had the same idea of looking at how many people were still playing this dated Call of Duty titles. One evening on Jan. 30, I logged into all four Call of Duty games, from the original Modern Warfare to the then most recent Black Ops to see how many were playing. Comparing those numbers from almost a year ago to today's, I'm a little surprised how little they have changed.

Here's a quick run down:

Black Ops: 757,237
Modern Warfare 2: 174,059
World at War: 15,079
Modern Warfare: 15,361

What's it all mean? Well judging by these numbers, it looks like the series has a strong fanbase that like to stick around.