Activision Announces Call of Duty 2023 Officially Delayed

Activision Announces Call of Duty 2023 Officially Delayed

It has been almost twenty years that Activision Blizzard‘s Call of Duty franchise has had a yearly release like clockwork. According to a report from Bloomberg, that may be changing in 2023 as the franchise will be taking a one-year hiatus.

Bloomberg‘s report states that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is not related to pushing the 2023 release of Call of Duty as a result of Call of Duty: Vanguard which was released in 2021. Vanguard did not meet expectations and that led to some executives believing that new entries in the Call of Duty franchise are releasing too often to make a big impact as the series once did.

Treyarch will be tasked with developing the next entry in the franchise in the three studio rotations of releases that they share with Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games. While Treyarch sees their development schedule get an additional year, Activision Blizzard says in Bloomberg‘s report they will have other projects to fill their 2023 schedule.

Infinity Ward‘s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare sequel is still scheduled to release this year as well as a sequel to the battle royale Warzone.

Bloomberg goes on to say:

“new free-to-play online title next year.” 

“We have an exciting slate of premium and free-to-play Call of Duty experiences for this year, next year, and beyond,” an Activision Blizzard spokesperson told Bloomberg in an email. “We look forward to sharing more details when the time is right.” 

Whether it be the loss of anticipation due to the constant releases or the lack of time to develop the game into a new entry that shows meaningful advancement from its predecessor, it should benefit the studios to have additional time to work on advancements in their respective titles moving forward.

Source: Bloomberg