Call of Duty: Black Ops as a "Bridge Game"

When Call of Duty 4, came out in 2007 the world was stunned. No more so than Treyarch. With no recourse they made Call of Duty: World at War, because they had no idea what IW was making until it was released. Now things have changed. Treyarch has had time since the end of 2008 to ponder it's next game, and the idea will be a great one. Since they can't tread into the turf IW has, why not have gamers get to there. This is why the next Call of Duty will be a bridge game, taking us from World War II almost to the time of Call of Duty 4. At first we heard the next game would be in vietnam, that may still be true but it seems that Treyarch is going further by having the player fight the Cold War. Like their rival's last two games the main character(s) will fight in multiple locations across the world. The new forthcoming game may also be more cinematic like IW's Modern Warfare games. However if this is so, then the plotline will be different. Indeed the weapons if part of the game is in Vietnam, may be throwbacks of World War II, which alongside Modern weapons may also give the feelling that #8 is a bridge to the Modern Warfare series. Indeed IW should not see this idea as a threat but as a compliment since Treyarch can do its own thing without threatening it's own series, in fact #8 may get us to the events which lead to the conflict in CoD 4. After all if this is the Cold War Russia will certainly be a location, However while it would be nice for Treyarch to be allowed by IW to use a certain sniper team from 1996 as part of its story, I have a feeling IW may not budge. However the question remains if the characters are IW property of Activision's. Case in point we saw Maj. Ingram in the first game (an IW production) but then we also saw him in United Ofeensive and #3 (neither was made by IW). In any case Treyarch is doing an interesting thing by bridging the gaps between the franchise's two eras.