Since 2005, a new mainline Call of Duty game has been released every year, but that will reportedly change next year. According to reporter, Activision Blizzard is delaying a Call of Duty game that was set to arrive in 2023.
After last year’s yearly release, Call of Duty: Vanguard, failed to meet expectations, Activision is pushing the game, which Schreier claims is being created by Treyarch, the creators of Call of Duty: Black Ops. According to Schreier, this caused officials to “suspect that it had been cannibalised by the previous year’s game.” Vanguard failed to reach Activision’s fourth-quarter estimates, according to a recent SEC filing.
Activision, on the other hand, appears to be planning to release more Call of Duty content. Activision has previously confirmed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be released in 2022, with “a steady stream of additional content,” according to Schreier. There will also be a new free-to-play online game available in 2023, which appears to be in addition to the eventual release of Warzone 2, which Schreier announced in a tweet.
Activision spokesperson Neil Wood said in a statement, “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 .”
Both the Modern Warfare sequel and a “new Warzone experience” (perhaps the Warzone 2 Schreier described) were announced by Activision in February, and both are set to release this year. While Activision claims that they’ll be “designed together from the ground-up,” it’s unclear whether the new Warzone will be a full sequel or a major update to the original. A new engine will power both of them.
Due to a lawsuit filed in California alleging that Activision fostered a culture of “constant sexual harassment” and labour protests from employees, including some who work on Call of Duty, the company has been heavily scrutinised. Microsoft said in January that it had reached an agreement to buy the company for $68.7 billion, though the deal isn’t scheduled to conclude until July of Microsoft’s fiscal year 2023.