Activision has promised the release of a “full premium” Call of Duty entry in 2023.
The publisher revealed the news in its third-quarter earnings release, where it spoke of “the next full premium release in the blockbuster annual series” for 2023.
That might not sound like headline news, given that the huge first person shooter franchise has been an annual money spinner from time immemorial. But a reliable source has suggested that 2023 would be an exception for the Call of Duty franchise.
Back in February, Well-sourced games journalist Jason Schreier wrote on Bloomberg that there would be no new Call of Duty release in 2023. Rather, he said that Activision would be selling what would effectively be expansion packs for the recently released Modern Warfare 2.
Activision’s latest claims would ostensibly appear to rubbish those claims, but don’t be so sure. Schreier has taken to Twitter and claimed that Activision’s talk of a “full premium release” was mere “PR language”.
According to Schreier the term “full premium release” merely means that Activision will be charging full price for what will still amount to a glorified expansion pack, which is likely to feature a new single-player campaign and multiplayer content.
The reporter claims that Sledgehammer will be handling this pumped up expansion. Anyone disappointed by Modern Warfare 2’s tweaks to the formula will have to wait a couple of years for a fresh take, with Treyarch said to be leading the next full blown Call of Duty release in 2024 rather than 2023.
Next up for the CoD series is the launch of Warzone 2, the follow-up to 2020’s hugely popular free-to-play Battle Royale, on November 16.
