No new Call of Duty in 2023
For the first time in 18 years, Activision might skip an annual mainline Call of Duty release
A report by Bloomberg has revealed that the Treyarch-developed Call of Duty title planned for 2023 has been delayed until 2024. This marks the first time Activision will go a year without a new CoD game since the franchise began in 2004.
Meanwhile, Infinity Ward’s sequel to 2019’s ‘Modern Warfare’ is still set to release later this year, and the free-to-play ‘Warzone 2’ is scheduled to come out sometime in 2023.
Bloomberg’s report suggests that the next ‘Modern Warfare’ title will receive two years of post-launch support to fill the gap caused by the delay – which is also a first, since mainline Call of Duty titles, except for ‘Warzone’, are generally supported with additional content for only a year, until the next installment’s release.
Activision has issued a response to Bloomberg’s report, saying “We have an exciting slate of premium and free-to-play Call of Duty experiences for this year, next year and beyond. Reports of anything otherwise are incorrect. We look forward to sharing more details when the time is right.”
While Activision’s response doesn’t seem to explicitly contradict Bloomberg’s report, it also doesn’t confirm or deny any of the statements.
The reason for the possible delay is speculative at this point, but Bloomberg’s sources suggest the decision has nothing to do with Activision’s sale to Microsoft and was made independently of that company.
This decision was made completely independently of Microsoft. Call of Duty Vanguard underperformed and Activision executives have been concerned about the games cannibalizing one another, sources say.
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) February 22, 2022
Jason Schreier reports that Activision execs are currently disappointed with the underwhelming performance of the latest ‘Call of Duty: Vanguard’ title, which “failed to meet expectations,” and are concerned that annual releases are now “cannibalizing one another,” while the standalone ‘Warzone’ battle-royale game has been receiving concurrent updates for the past two years.