Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Activision denies report about Call of Duty 2023 delay

After Bloomberg broke the news on February 22 that 2023 will be the first year without a mainline Call of Duty series release in two decades, Activision has refuted the report. Many reasons are cited for the delay, including the lack of met expectations from the last installment and focus being shifted to a free-to-play title.

“The company is pushing off the release after a recent entry in the series failed to meet expectations, leading some executives to believe that they’re introducing new versions too rapidly,” Bloomberg reports. “The decision was not related to Activision’s agreement to sell itself to Microsoft Corp. for $69 billion.”

Recommended Videos

Activision has since denied the Bloomberg report’s claims. In a statement to Digital Trends, a spokesperson for the publisher says: “We have 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. We look forward to sharing more details when the time is right.” Digital Trends asked for clarification on whether that meant a mainline game is still planned for 2023 and will update this article when we receive a response.

The report states that Activision is working on upcoming projects to fill the void left by this lack of Call of Duty. One of these titles is a new Call of Duty game set to release in the fall that Bloomberg reports will receive constant content updates.

There is also a free-to-play title in the works that is launching in 2023. Developer Treyarch is reportedly shifting its focus to that project instead of working on the next mainline title. This new FTP focus stems from the success of Call of Duty: Warzone and the underwhelming sales of Call of Duty: Vanguard. Bloomberg reports that Warzone‘s success and the subsequent release of Vanguard led “executives to suspect that it had been cannibalized by the previous year’s game.”

While the status of the game is up in the air, Microsoft’s purchase of Call of Duty’s parent company could change the plans of the next mainline title after the deal’s finalization in summer 2023. Microsoft previously noted that the series will remain on non-Xbox platforms moving forward.

DeAngelo Epps
Former Digital Trends Contributor
De'Angelo Epps is a gaming writer passionate about the culture, communities, and industry surrounding gaming. His work ranges…
War is hell, but Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 makes it a carnival game
Zombies shambling in Black Ops 6.

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who play Call of Duty and those who don’t. For three glorious hours, I was finally part of the former. Then it all came crashing down in a hail of gunfire.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is out now and it's being hailed as a return to greatness for the struggling series. Critics have praised features like its game-changing Omnimovement and welcomed the return of round-based Zombies mode. The star attraction, though, is this installment’s campaign. After years of experimental failures, Black Ops 6 delivers a straightforward political thriller full of eclectic missions. It’s a great premise, one that allows developer Raven to goof around with a “gone rogue” story featuring characters like Russel Adler.

Read more
The best Call of Duty games, ranked
Soldier holding weapon in Modern Warfare II.

Few video game series are as influential and popular as Call of Duty. The annualized franchise throws players into fast-paced battles across various historical time periods -- along with fictional eras as well. Call of Duty has taken us to World War II, the Cold War, a modern setting, and even to the future.

Although it's one of the most successful video game franchises out there, Call of Duty's quality varies significantly from game to game, with some fantastic entries in the series, but many mediocre ones as well. But which Call of Duty games are worth your time and which ones should you skip? To answer that question, we've ranked all the mainline entries in the series, with details about why you should or shouldn't play a particular game.

Read more
All Call of Duty games in order, by release date and chronologically
e3 2021 missing games call of duty

Call of Duty is one of the most successful video game franchises of all time. The original Call of Duty set a new standard for first-person shooters, the series' online multiplayer work has been a must-play for gamers for nearly two decades, and Warzone has been one of the top battle royale experiences of late.

The series has covered a lot of warfare, from World War II to futuristic fictional wars in 2187, but never in any set order. Players have been bounced around from era to era with each annual COD release and even revisited the same conflicts multiple times from different perspectives through direct sequels and remakes.

Read more