Activision Takes Legal Action Against Call of Duty Leaker, Claims Even False Rumors Damage Developers and Player Expectations

Activision has issued a legal demand to a prominent Call of Duty leaker, ordering them to cease sharing confidential information about the franchise. The company maintains that leaks, even when inaccurate, create significant issues for developers and disrupt player expectations.

The Twitter account @TheGhostOfHope, known within the Call of Duty community for its leaks, has been active for some time. Last month, Hope alleged that "sources" indicated a delay in the next Xbox console had negatively impacted Call of Duty marketing strategies. According to the leaker, Activision had intended for Modern Warfare 4 to be a launch title to compete with GTA 6.

Hope further speculated, "Because of this delay, the idea of two Call of Duty games launching with the next Xbox has been floated. A traditional Call of Duty multiplayer and a standalone Zombies title, presumably developed by Treyarch. Likely similar to that of Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered were both released together." The leaker also claimed Microsoft wanted Activision to adopt a more agile approach and move away from annual releases.

These claims, particularly the standalone Zombies suggestion which excited many fans, prompted an official response from the Call of Duty account dismissing the leak as false. "The rumor factory working overtime. This ain’t it," the account stated.

In response to Activision's denial, Hope remarked, "Whoever at COD PR came up with denying almost any rumor put out by anybody besides datamined stuff is a genius. Makes leakers look like fools and everybody will forget about them lying in a few years when this stuff comes true LOL. They know what they’re doing I’ll give them that."

On March 4, Hope announced that Activision had legally demanded an end to the leaks, and agreed to comply. "Still gonna stick around and chat about Official Call of Duty info and anything not related to leaks/confidential information," Hope added. "Cheers for these past few years."

Surprisingly, the official Call of Duty Twitter account responded to discussions about this action. When Call of Duty content creator TDAWG asked if the takedown validated Hope's leaks, the account denied their accuracy but emphasized the harm of leaks regardless. "Nah. Even when leaks are wrong, they still hurt the people building the game and mess with player expectations," they tweeted.

This statement received mixed reactions. Rod Breslau, also known as Slasher, criticized it, saying, "posting like this through the official account to go after a singular person reporting information is disgusting."

COD Warfare replied, "Yet your hype trailers and false advertising do more harm than the leaks to the players, as you advertise some thing completely different to what the actual game really is, BO6 first teaser ‘Gulf War’ ended some weird story with zombies missions, BO7 hyped up BO2 sequel and then you released that mess campaign wise."

TCMFGames added, "Wild to see the official COD account still go after ‘fake leaks.’" The Call of Duty account later responded to a comment urging action against hackers with: "tick, tick 💣"

In reality, the Call of Duty series has long been surrounded by a significant leaker community, with information often surfacing before official announcements. This makes Activision's recent move particularly surprising, and other prominent leakers have expressed concern.

Activision is currently recovering from the challenging launch of Black Ops 7, which has seen weaker sales compared to Black Ops 6, as reflected in European sales data and company admissions. This does not account for the Game Pass effect, as Call of Duty now launches day one on Microsoft's subscription service, likely impacting Xbox console sales. All attention is now on Activision for the announcement of this year's premium Call of Duty game, with many wondering if it will leak beforehand.