Treyarch’s next Call of Duty game won’t be out in 2023. While this year’s Call of Duty is still on track, next year’s has been delayed and according to a Bloomberg report.
This year’s Call of Duty will be a new entry in the Modern Warfare franchise and will be developed by Infinity Ward, Activision announced earlier this month. Infinity Ward will also develop a follow-up Call of Duty: Warzone
With Sledgehammer who made last year Call of Duty: Vanguard, and this year’s entry is edited by Infinity Ward, the next Call of Duty entry will come from Treyarch and will be part of the Black Ops series. After the delay, this new Black Ops game can be expected sometime in 2024.
The delay means 2023 will be the first year since 2004 that the series hasn’t had a mainline entry. The Call of Duty franchise debuted on Windows PC in 2003, which means the series’ 20th anniversary will also be missing out on a major new release.
This delay and the development of Call of Duty 2023 come at a time of massive change for Activision Blizzard. Earlier this year, it was announced that Microsoft would buy the publisher for $68.7 billion. The deal is set to close in Microsoft’s fiscal year 2023, which would likely make Treyarch’s next Call of Duty game the first under the Microsoft umbrella.
However, according to Bloomberg’s report, the decision to roll back the game was not related to the acquisition, but to the fact that it took place last year Call of Duty: Vanguard failed to live up to expectations, leading to fears that the company might be releasing new iterations too quickly.