CoD's Head Writer Reveals Plan For A Spinoff Ghost Game

Ghost is one of the most compelling and beloved characters in Call of Duty, but there's also a lot of mystery about him. The perfect character to get a standalone game then. Or, at least, that's what the head writers at Infinity Ward believe...

Ghost Standalone Game
A spinoff game focused on Ghost will surely be popular. | © Activision

Modern Warfare 2's campaign focused predominantly on Ghost as the main father-figure to Soap, rather than Price taking that role. This was quite a big change for the Modern Warfare franchise, but most fans would agree that it worked. Ghost is just about badass enough to finally replace Price.

But what about a standalone game? And no, we aren't talking about a sequel to 2013's Call of Duty: Ghosts. Which wasn't about the character Ghost, but a US Special Forces unit called The Ghosts. We're talking about a standalone game focused on telling the origin story of the SAS character Simon "Ghost" Riley.

Head Writer Outlines Idea For Spinoff CoD Focused On Ghost

In an interview with IGN, Modern Warfare 2's head writer Brian Bloom revealed his plan for a spinoff Call of Duty game focused on the origin story of Simon "Ghost" Riley. Ghost has always been one of the most intriguing characters to the playerbase, ever since we saw him betrayed by Shepherd way back in 2009. And in the most recent game's campaign (which we thoroughly enjoyed), he sort of became the main character, and did a great job in that role.

Here's what Bloom and the team are imagining:

There’s something about that character that’s iconic, but the mask and some of those more superficial elements, as we’ve attempted to build them out here in our current release, where did some of those things come from? And exploring that, and looking at that would be something I think the audience would love, and we would love to get into.

Explaining why Ghost wears a mask? Yeah, we're quite certain that would be a popular campaign. And perhaps, we might even see it be the focus of Modern Warfare 2, year 2. As the current game is getting a two-year cycle, with an expansion in the fall of 2023, perhaps this storyline could provide us with the campaign portion of that expansion?

What do you think about a Ghost origin story? Do you think this character can carry the weight of an entire game? Or are more excited for Treyarch's Gulf-War game coming in 2024?

If you love Ghost's character then we think you'd love the current MW2 campaign, you can buy MW2 here if you still need a copy. It's a good antidote to Warzone stuff like this:

Jon Ramuz

Jon has a BA and an MA in English Literature, and as Content Lead for EarlyGame has written over 1,500 articles. He focuses on shooters, but also writes about entertainment and gaming in general....