?Call Of Duty Black Ops: Declassified? Release Date Could Be ?18 Months? Away Critic Says; Activision Leeds Takes On Mobile

One of the biggest first-person shooter gaming titles on the market will be expanding on mobile platforms in the near future. Activision has just confirmed that its recently established studio in Leeds will be developing handheld and iOS versions of Call of Duty.

UK games industry expert Andy Payne revealed the news to Video Gamer, referring to Activision's studios as a single entity that works together to produce releases in the Call of Duty franchise.

Activision are like a machine, Payne said. I have to be careful what I say about these guys because I know them so well and they'll cane me. But Activision are a machine. They're very good, and you know that. What people don't realize with Activision is, the two studios working on the 'Call of Duty' franchise are collaborative studios.

Activision's presence in Leeds was established in November 2011, but until now, the studio's projects were not known. The Activision branch's ventures were simply known as development projects based on Activision brands until this point. Payne revealed that the studio will develop the Call of Duty mobile platform, and it has drawn inspiration from Rockstar Games' similar releases.

They [Activision] kind of always wanted to get the Rockstar team, he said, in reference to the Rockstar team in Leeds that has developed portable titles such as Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories, and Chinatown Wars.

He continued to say that mobile is a strategic move for the UK gaming industry.

Well, it's smart, because Britain's pretty ahead in mobile programming, said Payne. We're pretty good at it. Yet again, we're good at it, but we don't talk about it too much because we're British.

Previous mobile games in the Call of Duty franchise include Call of Duty: World at Wars Zombies and Black Ops Zombies, which were developed by the London-based Ideaworks Game Studio.

However, although the Leeds-based studio will work on handheld Call of Duty titles, it may not develop Back Ops: Declassified, for the PlayStation Vita, which was unveiled at E3 2012. According to ComputerAndVideoGames.com, Payne has indicated that the probability of the new studio developing the game is slim.

It's a simple case of logistics, Rob Crossley for CVG UK wrote. Activision Leeds isn't even official -- the publisher has yet to announce a new studio -- and at the moment the group is a mere handful of people looking to hire from the likes of Rockstar Leeds and Team 17... If Leeds was the principal developer of 'Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified,' it'd take at least 18 months for the game to be released.

Activision seems to be exploring new gameplay models and platforms, as the company also recently announced that a free-to-play online version of Call of Duty will launching in China later this year.