Next year’s Call of Duty is reportedly delayed (Update: Activision responds to reports)

Update: An Activision spokesperson provided Gamepur with the following 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.”

The statement did not specifically point to any details of the Bloomberg report for denial. The story as originally written is below.

We’ve already received official confirmation regarding this year’s Call of Duty entry from its developers. While Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 are headlining the franchise for 2022, the following Call of Duty installment may not end up meeting the expected 2023 window.

The news initially broke through a tweet from the Roundhill Investments account, which stated that 2023 will be the first time in almost 20 years that the franchise won’t meet the yearly release model. Bloomberg was cited as the source, with reporter Jason Schreier corroborating that the article’s contents were leaked early from the site’s Terminal subscription service.

According to the official Bloomberg report, people familiar with the project claimed that the decision was made due to a recent entry in the franchise failing to meet expectations. The game in question wasn’t divulged. The recent Microsoft acquisition also reportedly had no influence on this direction.

Instead, Activision is filling the year with other unnamed titles. Treyarch, the core developer behind the next entry, will also be helping Infinity Ward with Warzone 2 throughout the coming year until the next game is completely ready. Activision did not immediately respond when Bloomberg pressed for comment.

It seems as though Activision wants to give Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2 more of a spotlight, without forcing major titles to compete too close together. Assuming everything pans out as Bloomberg’s sources are saying, it is highly likely the Call of Duty entry after Modern Warfare 2 will be current-gen only. By 2024, it isn’t very likely for triple-A studios to still support the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.