'Call of Duty' is Reportedly Taking a Year Off in 2023

According to a new Bloomberg report, Activision Blizzard Inc. is delaying the annual release of its new Call of Duty game originally set to arrive in 2023. If realized, the move will mark the first time the mainline franchise will have skipped a year since 2005.

While many have speculated that the delay has something to do with the recent $69 billion USD Microsoft acquisition, reports indicate that Activision made the decision autonomously, and the reason is due to the uncharacteristically poor performance of Call of Duty: Vanguard and worries of oversaturation as players opt to stick with past versions of the game. Now reportedly set for 2024, Treyarch has an extra year of breathing room to develop the new Call of Duty title.

To fill the void, reports confirm a new “free-to-play online” game scheduled for 2023, likely referring to Warzone 2. Modern Warfare which is set to release later this year will also receive two years of post-launch updates promising new maps and game modes.

“We have an exciting slate of premium and free-to-play Call of Duty experiences for this year, next year, and beyond. Reports of anything otherwise are incorrect. We look forward to sharing more details when the time is right,” an Activision spokesman responded in a statement that neither confirms nor denies the reports.

This decision was made completely independently of Microsoft. Call of Duty Vanguard underperformed and Activision executives have been concerned about the games cannibalizing one another, sources say.

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) February 22, 2022

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