Call of Duty could skip an annual release in 2023 — report

By Kes Eylers-Stephenson,

The Call of Duty franchise could be facing its first delay in 20 years after recent reports have suggested that the 2023 entry will be pushed back a year.

Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier alleges that Activision will be delaying 2023's Treyarch-developed Call of Duty title. Apparently, this is because Call of Duty: Vanguard didn't manage to meet the bar for success which has led "some executives to believe that they’re introducing new versions too rapidly."

Without the Call of Duty title to fill that 2023 slot, Bloomberg has reported that the company is set on making "other projects." Supposedly, this will include an unannounced free-to-play online game. Bloomberg reached out for a statement, and an Activision spokesperson responded: "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."

Activision announced the next entry into the series will be a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare sequel that will launch next to a Warzone experience, of course. The pair of titles are set to be developed by Infinity Ward and should be launching later this year if everything goes to plan. This sequel, according to Bloomberg, will have "a steady stream of additional content." That might keep fans at bay until the Treyarch 2024 entry.

How does this news sit with you? Will the let up from annualised releases be a good thing? Get to the comments and let us know!

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Written by Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Editor Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and other gaming news. He writes about PS5 exclusives like The Last of Us and Horizon, PS Plus news, and his favorite games — The Witcher, Assassin’s Creed, and God of War — before an evening swim.