It’s not strange to see developers tease fans about their games due out in the coming year. With Sledgehammer Games and Treyarch releasing Call of Duty: WW2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 in past years, it’s now Infinity Ward’s turn to take the reins of the franchise again. Senior communications manager Ashton Williams recently tweeted a GIF of a skull and some static, teasing the same.

Call of Duty: Ghosts 2? It would have seemed possible, given the cliff-hanger nature of the first game’s ending. However, according to Kotaku’s Jason Schreier on ResetEra, it isn’t a sequel to Call of Duty: Ghosts. Maybe something related to Modern Warfare 2, especially considering the character Ghost first appeared in that title? Perhaps a remaster, in vein of the one for the original Modern Warfare might be in the works?

It’s hard to say at this point, but the tease could certainly mean something. After all, Infinity Ward began 2016 with an image of an astronaut in space. Months later, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was announced (and famously disliked on YouTube). What could the developer have up its sleeve? Stay tuned for more information.

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However, when you look at Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, it becomes really, really hard to hate it. Along with innovating its multiplayer to include Specialist abilities which aren’t absurdly OP like Destiny’s Supers, not to mention adding wall-running and Prestige for guns, it managed to keep the gameplay similar enough to appeal to long-time fans.

"The series introduced a hybrid system of sorts with Call of Duty: Ghosts. This system uses dedicated servers when available but will fall back on peer-to-peer connectivity if they’re not available."

Also, for all the flak that the campaign received, it’s still extremely well-made with great production values and offers a lengthy, fun experience with plenty of options for customization. There are VR Horde mode missions to complete, a Nightmares mode which tells a new story with Zombies thrown in, a dedicated Zombies campaign with new mechanics, a free-running mode to practice your parkour skills. That’s not including all the modes in multiplayer or the camos, weapons, skins, gestures, etc. that can be earned by grinding Cryptokeys and buying Supply Drops. Treyarch even adds new unconventional weapons like a sword and a shotgun pistol on a regular basis.

It is very easy to hate Call of Duty for one thing though – the lack of true dedicated servers.

It’s probably important to explain this, especially in the case of Black Ops 3. The series introduced a hybrid system of sorts with Call of Duty: Ghosts. This system uses dedicated servers when available but will fall back on peer-to-peer connectivity if they’re not available. Sounds good enough to encompass a wide range of players, right?

"So the obvious question is: Why doesn’t Activision just go full dedicated servers for Call of Duty on consoles as well? The problem does come down to resources."

With Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, Treyarch opted for 100 percent dedicated servers on PC while consoles used this hybrid system. The hybrid system has its problems though. Say you live in South East Asia. You’ll need to connect to, say, Japan’s server or rely on P2P. That means higher latency, which can result in lag. With the quick time-to-kill or TTK of Call of Duty, it can lead to matches where you’re wiped out in a millisecond while enemies take several rounds to die. Do you like getting hit-markers with a OHK sniper rifle? Because that’s what can happen.

This problem isn’t like Destiny, however, which only uses a peer-to-peer connection system and then throws in skill-based matchmaking to pair you with people all around the globe. But it does result in the biggest oscillation of match quality you’ll ever see. One match you could be absolutely wrecking but in the next, your deaths far outweigh your kills.

So the obvious question is: Why doesn’t Activision just go full dedicated servers for Call of Duty on consoles as well? The problem does come down to resources. Not every remote region is going to have access to a dedicated server. Then again, when you consider a “smaller” game like Titanfall which had dedicated servers the world over, it’s a little odd. It’s also especially odd when you consider games like Halo 5: Guardians which use dedicated servers and don’t encounter as many issues with lag.

Those games also have a higher TTK overall, so even if lag compensation does kick in, you won’t feel like you’re being shredded instantly. Of course, even when you consider the resources necessary, you have to remind yourself of this:

"But when you’re talking one of the most successful franchises ever and a request that’s pretty much been the standard for years, one has to wonder what the problem really is after a point."

Call of Duty is one of the most successful franchises in the industry, year-in, year-out, even when it’s in a slump. The amount of money garnered from Supply Drops, DLC and the base game is incredible. Heck, Black Ops 3 was the best-selling game in the United States according to the NPD, despite being on sale for two months in the entire year.

The series itself has topped 250 million sales worldwide as of January 2016. It’s one thing to say that not every remote region will have access to dedicated servers on consoles but an entirely different thing when heavily populated areas like South East Asia don’t.

With Call of Duty: Ghosts 2 apparently around the corner, it will be interesting to see what Infinity Ward does. Treyarch’s titles have usually been notorious for lag and honestly, the house that built Modern Warfare could go either way at this point. It would be nice to wish for something like dedicated servers the world over and be politely subjected to vitriol because of the resources required. But when you’re talking one of the most successful franchises ever and a request that’s pretty much been the standard for years, one has to wonder what the problem really is after a point.

While there have been a number of rumors about Call of Duty: Ghosts 2 being the next title in the long running series, there haven’t been any solid pieces of proof to surface just yet. While there was even an image that supposedly surfaced showing action in the game, it proved out to be nothing but fake.

Along the same lines as those images is the recent discovery of a listing for the game at an online retailer’s website. This listing has been making the rounds of Youtube recently and some players are taking this as a confirmation that next game will be a sequel to Ghosts. The problem with this listing is that it appears to be the only one that has actually surfaced. While it’s possible that other stores know this game is coming and have just not listed it yet, it’s more likely that the page on instant-gaming.com is more of a placeholder than anything else. Nothing in the listing really divulges any information.

We do know that there is supposed to be another Call of Duty game coming this year, as is the case with most of the games in this series. The listing does not have an actual release date but just says the title is going to be coming in 2016. Further proof that this is more a place holder than an actual leak is that there isn’t even any image accompanying the spot on the website. On the other hand, where there’s smoke, there’s fire and there’s been enough talk about Call of Duty: Ghosts 2 that it might be coming. We’ll likely know more before E3 begins.

You can check out the listing in the video below. Thanks, TheLongSensation.