As one of the most beloved characters in the history of the Call of Duty franchise, it was only a matter of time before Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley took center stage. In 2023, that’s a concept that could become a reality, as reportedly, via Ralph Valve on whatifgaming, a spin-off campaign title featuring Modern Warfare II’s Ghost is in the works.
If there’s one thing that’s not yet been done in the Call of Duty universe, it’s expansion content focusing on individual characters. As the franchise has been an annual release for more than fifteen years, there really isn’t time for anything other than map packs and cosmetic items. This will be a first for the modern arc of the franchise, and it would shed a much-desired light on Ghost’s background.
Could Ghost Be Returning in His Own Game?
For a while, it seemed as though there truly wouldn’t be any new Call of Duty content coming in 2023. Then, all of a sudden, Activision published a financial report that spoke of a ‘premium release’ coming in 2023, acting as an expansion to the Call of Duty franchise. It wasn’t known what this could be, but industry veteran Jason Schreier weighed in on the news.
If Jason Schreier is correct, then we’ll see a Modern Warfare II expansion land in 2023 that’s equal to the size of a full game. That’s your Ghost spin-off potential, right there.
In October, an interview took place between IGN and Infinity Ward’s narrative director, Jeffrey Negus, and head writer, Brian Bloom. They spoke at length about their desire to create a ‘Call of Duty one-off’, an expansion that focuses on Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley. While nothing was confirmed, there are too many coincidences lining up for it not to at least be a possibility.
What’s somewhat unusual though, is that if a Ghost spin-off is in the works, it’s not clear exactly when it will release. Schreier claims that Sledgehammer Games will be working on the 2023 content, whereas Ralph claims that the Ghost campaign spin-off is by Infinity Ward; so will we really see it in 2023?
Do We Want More Modern Warfare II?
When Modern Warfare II launched, it was in a fairly sorry state – and it’s still fighting to recover at present. There were many issues with the base game that were causing players a fair amount of grief, from network instability to spontaneous bans and from Godmode glitches to unbalanced weapons.
It’s starting to peter out a little now, but maybe the community has stopped complaining about Modern Warfare II now that Warzone 2.0 has launched, along with the highly anticipated DMZ mode.
Of course, they’re now complaining about that, instead…
Insider Gaming was unable to verify whatifgaming’s report.
Do you want to see a Ghost Campaign in 2023?
