A new Call of Duty game release is expected every year, making last week's news that, yes, 2012 will see a new game in the series come out no real surprise. With Infinity Ward and Treyarch continuing to alternate releases, this year is Treyarch's turn to bring out a game. At this point we don't know any of the specifics, but it's looking increasingly likely that it will be a direct sequel to Black Ops, at least in terms of naming.

After previously acquiring Black Ops-related domain names (from BlackOps3.com up through BlackOps6.com), Activision reportedly got its hands on BlackOps2.com not long ago. The domain acquisition on its own didn't seem like a confirmation that Black Ops would receive a follow-up; many companies purchase domains in order to simply have their hands on them so others cannot profit on their intellectual property. Other times it's done to avoid embarrassing situations where a URL based on a game's name cannot be used to promote the competition -- a situation Activision found itself in last year when ModernWarfare3.com was home to a site knocking Call of Duty and encouraging visitors to pick up Battlefield 3. Activision decided to take action against the domain owner in an effort to acquire it, which it managed to do successfully. The entire situation could have been avoided had it simply registered the domain sooner, so BlackOps2.com falling into the hands of Activision seemed insignificant on its own.

Evidence has since been uncovered suggesting BlackOps2.com may soon come in handy. The LinkedIn profile of Nerve Software artist Hugo Beyer listed Black Ops 2 among the games he has contributed to before the page was amended, reports Joystiq. Nerve is an independent developer which has worked with Treyarch and Activision before on the original Black Ops and Quantum of Solace.

Additionally, Amazon France reportedly published a listing for Black Ops 2 recently. After originally being reported by French game site Gameblog.fr, Activision supposedly requested the story be pulled and then blacklisted the site when it refused to do so. In other words, it was uninvited from an upcoming Transformers press event and told it would not be receiving review games in the future. We can't confirm the accuracy of these claims Gameblog has made, though we have contacted Activision for comment.

Black Ops is by far the most successful Call of Duty game Treyarch has made, a list that includes Call of Duty 3 and World at War. Despite the name change, Black Ops did share something in common with its predecessor, World at War, beyond the inclusion of a Zombies mode, namely the Gary Oldman-voiced character Viktor Reznov. But the two games were not as closely related as Infinity Ward's last three titles, each of which featured an overarching story and (for the most part) the same protagonists. It's arguable which approach is the better one, but I know I appreciated the return of familiar characters in the Modern Warfare games like Captain Price.

Establishing another mini-brand within the Call of Duty franchise similar to what Infinity Ward has done with Modern Warfare only seems like a natural way to go, particularly since it seems likely Treyarch will stick with Cold War-era content to compliment Infinity Ward's modern-day stories. (It also opens the door for an additional line of Call of Duty titles to compliment Modern Warfare and Black Ops.) We've theorized a game set during the 1970s could make a lot of sense for Black Ops 2, if that ended up being the direction Activision decided to go in. Whatever the case may be, it's all but guaranteed that Zombies mode will make a return.

Being only three months removed from the release of Modern Warfare 3, it's too soon to expect Activision to start talking about the next game. The big leak of Modern Warfare 3 screenshots and details occurred in May last year, and Activision still wasn't about to announce anything at that point. It decided to respond by releasing a series of teaser trailers it had ready to go but was holding onto for a later time. Now with Call of Duty Elite keeping the series fresh in gamers' mind and delivering new content on a monthly basis, Activision could be keen on waiting even longer before revealing the next Call of Duty title to the public.

As such, the company is unlikely to address these listings with anything more than a "no comment." But with all signs pointing to Black Ops 2, we can start guessing about what Treyarch may have in store this year. Will Gary Oldman be back for more crazy voice acting sessions? Will Treyarch finally top Infinity Ward? Will it be available on Wii U? On Vita?

It's all guesswork at this point, of course, but that doesn't make it any less fun. Let us know what you think a potential Black Ops 2 could bring with it, as well as whether you'd prefer to see Black Ops 2 or an entirely new, Treyarch-made Call of Duty title.