No new mainline Call of Duty in 2023, report says

Activision will not release a new mainline Call of Duty game in 2023, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

Instead, Activision is planning to release a “new, free-to-play online title next year,” according to sources “familiar with the plan.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War developer Treyarch is the studio in charge of the game originally planned for 2023. It appears that the game will now launch in 2024. The report states that the studio will “also help with the free-to-play title,” which some have speculated is a standalone Zombies experience.

Activision did not directly deny rumors, though they did say in a statement sent to IGN that it has “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.” Still, there were no reports that there would not be any new Call of Duty experiences in 2023, just that it wouldn’t be a mainline entry.

According to the Bloomberg report, 2021’s Call of Duty: Vanguard “failed to meet Activision’s sales expectations,” leading to higher-ups in the company questioning the wisdom of an annual release schedule. Likewise, Activision already announced that this year’s entry will be a direct sequel to 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, a game that only had one year of live-service support despite its overwhelming popularity.