‘Activision Postpones Planned CoD Game for 2023’ – Update
Typically knowledgeable Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier says Activision will delay its 2023 Call of Duty game. With this Activision interrupts the cycle for the first time in a long time in which a new title in the series is released every year.
Schreier says he is relying on sources familiar with Activision Blizzard’s plan. The company is said to be in the process of postponing the release after a recent title in the series fell short of expectations. That’s probably Call of Duty: Vanguard, the latest title that came out last year and hasn’t led to good sales so far. Based on that, some executives would have concluded that they are releasing new versions too quickly. This decision would have nothing to do with Microsoft’s recently planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
To fill the gap in 2023, the game company would be working on other projects. The planned Call of Duty title for the fall of this year has yet to come out. Schreier’s sources indicated that this game will receive a fair amount of additional content and that a new, free-to-play online game will be released next year. Treyarch, the studio working on the delayed Call of Duty game, is also said to be contributing to this free game. Schreier approached Activision, but the company declined to confirm or deny these reports.
The free game will probably be a successor to the current Call of Duty: Warzone. Released in 2020, this free-to-play battle royale game recently got a new playing field and is still very popular. In addition to Warzone, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War from 2020 would also have contributed to Vanguard’s disappointing results. Activision has released a new Call of Duty title every year since 2005.
This year’s Call of Duty title will be a successor to 2019’s Modern Warfare title, Activision previously confirmed. It was also announced that a new Warzone experience is being worked on. The publisher was also critical of the current state of Warzone.
Update, Thursday, 11.30: Activision commented on the rumor: “We have an exciting array of premium and free-to-play Call of Duty experiences for this year, next year and beyond. Reports that this is different are false. We’re looking at it to share more details when the time is right.”
Call of Duty: Vanguard