Call of Duty's yearly release pattern may finally be broken by this time next year. Jason Schreier from Bloomberg is now reporting that Activision has delayed Call of Duty's 2023 title to 2024, which means there will probably be no new premium Call of Duty game in 2023. It would be the first year that won't have a premium Call of Duty game since 2004, a year after the very first Call of Duty game.
Schreier reports that new content for Warzone 2 and 2022's Modern Warfare is still planned for next year. The decision to skip 2023 was also apparently made independent from Microsoft and was determined by Activision executives after Call of Duty: Vanguard underperformed. The executives were also concerned that multiple games releasing around the same time would "cannibalize one another," according to one of Schreier's sources.
Related: How to get the Forbidden Sacrifice Bundle in Call of Duty: Warzone and Vanguard
Call of Duty is one of the biggest video game franchises in the world, only behind Pokemon and Mario. The franchise's yearly release model earned Activision hundreds of millions of dollars, but the last few titles in the series continued selling less and less. It was the same problem Ubisoft faced with the Assassin's Creed franchise. Taking a year break may give the Call of Duty developers at Treyarch more time to come up with new and refreshing ideas for the franchise.
Schreier's report is not an official confirmation from Activision Blizzard or Treyarch, neither of whom have made any official statement. For more on Call of Duty, keep reading on Pro Game Guides.
Published: Feb 22, 2022 04:49 pm