Activision Blizzard insists that 2023 will still see the release of a “full premium” Call of Duty title, seemingly pushing back on reports that the series would be skipping a year following the launch of Modern Warfare 2.
“Activision is looking forward to building on its current momentum in 2023,” the company says in its latest financial results press release (opens in new tab), “with plans for next year including the most robust Call of Duty live operations to date, the next full premium release in the blockbuster annual series, and even more engaging free-to-play experiences across platforms.”
The wording about the “next full premium release in the blockbuster annual series” seemingly pushes back on a Bloomberg report from back in February, which suggested that there would be no mainline Call of Duty launch in 2023.
Activision has, in fact, been pushing back on that report for months, saying in February that it has “an exciting slate of premium and free-to-play Call of Duty experiences for this year, next year and beyond.” The company further asserted in August (opens in new tab) that the Call of Duty team has “new premium content planned for 2023 and beyond.”
More recent reports suggest that 2023’s Call of Duty game might actually be a premium-priced expansion for Modern Warfare 2, and Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier is reiterating that in a tweet (opens in new tab) following today’s press release from Activision.
Call of Duty 2023 will be a premium paid expansion for Modern Warfare 2 developed by Sledgehammer, while the true next entry in the series, developed by Treyarch, won’t launch until 2024, according to Schreier.
Modern Warfare 2 has made $1 billion faster than any previous game in the series.