Call of Duty, an annual collection going again to 2005, gained’t publish a brand new, main-series recreation in 2023, and will as an alternative see a marketing campaign extension for the soon-to-launch Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 reboot, in response to a corroborated leak on social media.
Twitter insider TheGhostOfHope last week said {that a} premium “greatest hits map pack,” comprising multiplayer maps from 2009’s Modern Warfare 2, and different fan favorites, could be “released for MWII Year 2.” Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who first reported (in February) that Call of Duty would skip 2023, concurred that Activision would sell “new stuff for MW2,” subsequent 12 months: “an expansion or something like that” which would come with a single-player marketing campaign element.
Schreier additionally reported in February {that a} “new free-to-play online title” was in improvement at Treyarch and would launch in 2023. Treyarch’s 2024 Call of Duty recreation will be half of the Black Ops storyline that studio has developed since 2010.
Activision responded to February’s rumors by saying it had (*2*)
The rebooted Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will launch on the finish of October. Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0, the subsequent iteration of the collection’ free-to-play battle royale, arrives Nov. 16. Both will be accessible on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Activision’s Call of Duty flagship franchise has solely “skipped” one 12 months since its 2003 debut, that being in 2004. Since 2005, Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and later Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software, have rotated improvement of the army shooter to ship a brand new recreation each fall.
Still, even with three years, improvement of a full-strength Call of Duty runs on a really tight schedule. Treyarch was moved up one 12 months, to 2020, with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War when Sledgehammer Games’ improvement of what would change into Call of Duty: Vanguard bumped into difficulties with help studio Raven Software in 2019.
Even if 2023 is the collection’ twentieth anniversary 12 months, it is smart that Treyarch would get a breather after pinch-hitting on two years’ relaxation in 2020. Further, Dan Bunting, Treyarch’s improvement co-lead since 2003, abruptly left the studio final 12 months. He departed following a Wall Street Journal report by which he was allegedly protected by Activision chief government Bobby Kotick after a sexual harassment declare was made in opposition to Bunting in 2017.
A skipped 12 months additionally is smart in gentle of Microsoft’s ongoing $68 billion acquisition of Activision, introduced again in January and topic to authorities regulators’ approval within the United States and Europe. Though Microsoft has mentioned it intends to proceed creating and publishing Call of Duty for rival PlayStation platforms, Sony says Microsoft’s public stance is “inadequate” contemplating the outsize affect Call of Duty has within the console gaming market.
In September, PlayStation chief government Jim Ryan mentioned Microsoft had, in “a private business discussion,” solely provided to proceed publishing Call of Duty on PlayStation “for three years after the current agreement between Activision and Sony ends.”
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