Executive reportedly name-drops next numbered entry in long-running large-scale military shooter franchise during college campus event.

Source: A Twitter post of an attendee at a college campus talk given by Electronic Arts president Frank Gibeau reports the executive confirmed Battlefield 4.

What we heard: Battlefield 3 is barely two weeks old, but Electronic Arts is already thinking about the sequel. The University of Southern California held a campus event last night that featured a talk from EA president Frank Gibeau. If the Twitter account is accurate, Gibeau addressed the future of the Battlefield franchise, saying, "There is going to be a Battlefield 4."

The notion of another Battlefield game on the way is hardly surprising. Battlefield 3 was EA's biggest launch ever, shipping 10 million copies worldwide for day one. The game was well received by critics and sold through more than 5 million copies in the first week.

While more Battlefield is a foregone conclusion, the bigger question is when EA would release it. Activision gave its own confirmation of the next Call of Duty game yesterday, but unlike EA, the Modern Warfare 3 publisher said that its next military shooter would arrive in 2012.

In August, DICE executive producer Patrick Bach said in an interview that annualizing the Battlefield franchise would "dilute the vision" and "eventually kill the franchise." Battlefield is not quite a yearly franchise for EA, which saw two years pass between the release of 2008's Bad Company and that of last year's Bad Company 2. Battlefield 3 marks the first numbered game in the series since the release of the PC-only Battlefield 2 in 2005.

The official story: EA had not responded to GameSpot's request for comment as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus: Not bogus that Battlefield 4 is coming eventually, but when and how it launches remain to be seen.