Activision Won't Release New Call of Duty Game in 2023

After nearly two decades of annual release, Call of Duty becomes one of the biggest names in gaming industry. Series publisher Activision/Blizzard has recently been acquired by Microsoft but intends to release games on rival platforms.

Activision has been launching a new Call of Duty game every year since 2003 series debut and thus, annualized the shooter franchise. However, they are taking a break in 2024 release cycle due to a sales decline of Call of Duty: Vanguard.

According to Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier, Activision has decided to delay their newest Call of Duty game by developer Treyarch for 2023 after Vanguard unexpectedly failed to meet overall company sales expectation for last year.

Some executives think that they are bringing new versions too fast and plans to work on other projects for next year. Activision plans to deliver a steady supply of additional content for next Call of Duty and new free-to-play Battle Royale.

Activision previously announced that Call of Duty 2022 will be a sequel Modern Warfare (2019) reboot by Infinity Ward. Other than working on Modern Warfare 2, dev team is also developing a successor to Call of Duty: Warzone experience.

Call of Duty is often best-selling game of each year and its absence next year would have great impact on gaming market. Activision will reportedly launch Modern Warfare sequel in October instead of a November release window this year.