Activision Blizzard Inc will not release one for next year in an almost twenty-year streak of delivering a mainline Call of Duty (CoD) game every year and instead push it for a 2024 release. It will be the first time since 2005 that the company will not put out a mainline CoD title, according to a report by Bloomberg. While this year’s Modern Warfare 2 game is set for launch during the fall season, the company reports that other Call of Duty projects are in the works for the following year.
The report states the delay and the game’s development were pushed back after Call of Duty: Vanguard, a recent entry in the series, failed to meet expectations, leading some executives to believe that they’re introducing new versions too rapidly.
They presumed that the 2021 version was overshadowed by the previous year’s free-to-play game Call of Duty: Warzone, which was a massive hit and may have drawn players away from the premium entries. It was suggested that Activision may have made this decision in an effort to prevent future Call of Duty titles from conflicting with other releases in the series.
Activision ensured that the decision to delay had nothing to do with the recent acquisition of the company by Microsoft in a $69 billion deal earlier this year. The deal is expected to be completed by 2024, which would likely make the next Call of Duty title the first under the Microsoft umbrella.
The annual Call of Duty release has always been one of the gaming industry’s most profitable events, with the games topping sales charts every year and remaining in the top ten year-round. The franchise has sold over 400 million units since its debut in 2003.
Fans speculate on what the delay could mean for the video game industry and whether it would affect the Call of Duty league and the gaming industry as a whole. However, Activision is reportedly working on other content to fill in the gap, including additional content for the Call of duty game set to come out this fall, and announced that there would be a new free-to-play title coming out next year.
The report said that Treyarch, the studio working on the now-delayed game, will also help with the free-to-play title coming out in 2024.
“We have an exciting slate of premium and free-to-play Call of Duty experiences for this year, next year, and beyond,” a spokesman for Activision wrote in an emailed statement. “We look forward to sharing more details when the time is right.”
The company released details about the Modern Warfare sequel earlier this month, which California-based Infinity Ward will develop. The studio will also create a follow-up to Call of Duty: Warzone with officials stating a “new Warzone experience.” Activision added that both would be designed together from the ground up.
Three different developers develop the games under the company that takes turns releasing a Call of Duty game, and this allows each developer to build a game for three years before releasing the finished product. Treyarch’s version is said to be part of the Black Ops series, and after the delay, this new Black Ops game can be expected sometime in 2024.
Edited By- Subbuthai Padma
Published By- Bharat Anand
