For the past 18 years (since 2005), there has been a new Call Of Duty game yearly for gamers to do battle in and enjoy but that annual release streak it appears is about come to an end.
Based on Wednesday morning’s tweets by Bloomberg’s news reporter & anchor, Jason Schreier, he mentioned Activision Blizzard (the company that owns the Call Of Duty empire) is delaying a C.O.D title that has originally been scheduled for a release sometime in 2023. Â Â
Activision hasn’t categorically confirmed whether Bloomberg’s reports are indeed true however, the company’s Spokesperson, Neil Wood, in a statement to the press, responded by stating, “We have an exciting slate of premium 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.”Â
Why is C.O.D taking a break?
The decision to shift from the traditional annual release cycle is apparently attributed to last year’s Call Of Duty: Vanguard title which failed meet its developer’s (Activision Blizzard) expectations, leading the company’s executives to believe they were introducing new games way too fast.Â
Jason Shreier also acknowledges that this decision isn’t in any way related to Microsoft’s recent takeover of American video gaming enterprise Activision Blizzard.Â
A January report by IGN pointed out that Call Of Duty: Vanguard’s global sales had been declining considerably as a result of players feeling fatigued by the rapid release rate of C.O.D games…they’ve just been too many too fast for people to handle all at once. Â
This year’s Call Of Duty games are pushing forward as planned
Bloomberg says there are three titles currently in development with two of them already confirmed to come out later this year, they are; Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 & Call Of Duty Warzone 2.
The 3rd game hasn’t been officially announced yet and is the one being delayed hence won’t launch next year. That means we’ll likely get to see (play) the game sometime in 2024 instead. Its being developed by Treyarch – creator of 2020’s Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War game.Â
Treyarch will also assist in developing an upcoming but yet-to-be announced free-to-play online game. Its going to launch in 2023 and will fill the gap left by the one that has been postponed although it won’t be part of the mainline series.Â
Warzone 2 and Modern Warfare 2 on the other hand, are being designed together from the ground up, Infinity Ward (creator of the Modern Warfare and Warzone titles) is presiding over the development of both.
How many C.O.D titles are there?
First off, the franchise was founded back in 2003. The first installment was Call Of Duty in the same 2003 with the latest being 2021’s Call Of Duty: Vanguard.Â
In total, there are 17 games spanning across the franchise’s 19 year history. There are numerous spin-off/related games however that are not included the mainline series but are part of the extended C.O.D family.Â
Other Key Points
Activision Blizzard continues to operate independently for now as Microsoft’s $68.7Billion acquisition of the company which is to be finalized by June 2023 is currently undergoing serious regulatory scrutiny after the disturbing discovery of “constant sexual harassment” amongst its employees went viral mid last year. Nevertheless, its unlikely Microsoft is going to interfere with Activision’s plans for C.O.D at the moment.Â
Conclusion
If these rumors are true then 2023 will mark the first year in nearly two decades when there won’t be a mainline C.O.D game released at all.Â
This decision obviously marks a big change for the franchise but I think its likely to be a positive step going forward. More time in development would likely mean a better performing and much livelier game being released. The popular franchise needs a breather after all.
It also means there’ll be a more meaningful investment and attention put into the ones coming this year.Â
