According to Next-Gen, an ex-Activision employee from the recently death knelled Underground studio says Infinity Ward has entered re-negotiations to claim the franchise back.

Currently it alternates between Infinity and Treyarch but they'd like to keep their creation much closer to home.

Activision, understandably, want to capitalize on the immensely popular FPS and so the two studios would each release a new game in the franchise to reap the annual rewards. Infinity Ward developed both Call of Duty 1 and 2 while Treyarch then delivered the third.

The latest Modern Warfare was Infinity again but the next is Treyarch turn behind the wheel. Regardless of what happens Treyarch studio will still be the force behind CoD5, but Infinity Ward could soon be the sole developer behind the game once more.

Let's tumble down the rabbit-hole a little more though - apparently the now closing Underground studio would have also been working on a new CoD game. Not a FPS but a third-person action adventure spin-off, this re-negotiation if successful would stop any other studio touching the franchise completely.

Infinity Ward seems to be worried the brand will be watered down and ultimately face the same fate as EA's Medal of Honour which declined with so many sequels flooding gamers.

Both developer and publisher have declined to comment on any such happenings at the moment which is hardly surprising.