Following the 13th May revelation of a new job posting on the Activision jobs board, rumors about a new IP are gaining momentum. Although it's hard to tell from the listing what exactly is listed, fans are still speculating about what Activision's new IP might be. 

Before the listing was made public, there had been rumors about a new Call of Duty game. However, some fans theorized that it might be a whole different intellectual property from the expensive military shooter. Some disagree, pointing to Microsoft's recent closure of multiple studios and other reported impending closures.

Activision has posted a job listing on its Careers website, stating that they are seeking a Director of Animation Engineering "to join the development of a new IP." Helping Activision "Drive the vision and roadmap animation systems for the next 5 years and beyond" is listed as one of the job's tasks. This seems to imply that the role may be a live-service game with a few seasons of material planned. The "Bonus Points" section of the job posting requests experience with shader programming languages, animation programming and streaming, and reliable and portable coding. Other than that, not much else is mentioned in the posting. The job requires an experienced animation director who has shipped at least one AAA game.

Although there are a few distinct theories among fans regarding the mystery product, some of them are more Call of Duty spin-offs than original intellectual properties. "Project Devilwood," a code name for a speculated Call of Duty: Ghosts sequel that came out in 2013, is one term that made the rounds. Although it serves as a prelude to the larger Modern Warfare plot, the game is anticipated to be a sequel to the original.

The job listing is also rekindling speculation about Infinity Ward's potential first-person shooter role-playing game and Blizzard's shelved survival MMO. It was stated in 2022 that the Polish office of Infinity Ward was seeking a Narrative Director to assist with world building for an upcoming open-world role-playing game. There wasn't much information on that specific listing either, but soon after it was made public, the job was filled and the listing was removed. Following the completion of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision-Blizzard-King earlier this year, news broke of the cancellation of Blizzard's survival MMO, called simply "Odyssey".

It's hard to predict what Microsoft's internal objectives are as it shutters studios and acquires more, whether the company intends to reallocate resources or free them up for tried-and-true IP. Until someone at Activision releases new information, fans can conjecture endlessly over the wording of a job posting on LinkedIn. It remains to be seen what project this new Animation Director will oversee.