Next year’s Call of Duty has been delayed according to a Bloomberg report. This marks the first time in almost twenty years that the franchise will not have a yearly release.
The reason cited for the delay is that “a recent entry” failed to meet expectations, and is reportedly not due to Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Bloomberg states in their report. Although it isn’t explicitly stated, this recent entry most likely refers to last year’s Call of Duty: Vanguard, as the game was released to mixed reviews and lackluster sales. It is also reported that Activision executives believe that they may be introducing the games too rapidly, and that the continued success of games like Call of Duty: Warzone might have kept players away from the new title.
In place of a main Call of Duty entry for next year, Activision plans to not only continuously update this years title with new content, but they will also be releasing a new free-to-play online title next year that is being worked on by Treyarch. In an email statement to Bloomberg, a spokesman for Activision said:
We have an exciting slate of premium and free-to-play Call of Duty experiences for this year, next year and beyond. We look forward to sharing more details when the time is right.
There have been no delays announced thus far for this year’s tandem of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Warzone 2. Both are being designed together and are being worked on by Infinity Ward. The new game is a sequel to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare released in 2019, which has sold over 30 million copies. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is currently slated for a fall release.
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A Nintendo Switch trailer was also released.
According to SteamDB.
An announcement trailer was also released.