Though Activision has delayed Treyarch’s upcoming mainline Call of Duty title to 2024, a new report has revealed that the rumored “Call of Duty 2023” will be a full-fledged game helmed by Sledgehammer Games. The Infinity Ward-supervised game will continue the Modern Warfare 2 story and carry over its maps and modes, having expanded in scale from a premium MW2 expansion to a full-sized release.
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Though a Treyarch-developed Call of Duty title was delayed from a 2023 release to 2024 early last year, Activision revealed a full premium game in the works to be released this year in its latest quarterly earnings report. This premium game is reportedly being developed by Sledgehammer Games, which was most recently responsible for Call of Duty: Vanguard. Sledgehammer was intially commissioned to develop a premium expansion for Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 to fill the gap until Call of Duty 2024, with a single-player campaign and several multiplayer maps. In the time since, it has evolved into a full-fledged title set to continue Modern Warfare 2’s story, but will probably not be Modern Warfare 3 according to the report.
Activision’s plan for the game is for it to “feel like a standalone, full-price release and also an extension of Modern Warfare 2.” Currently, the game will carry over “maps and modes” from Modern Warfare 2, but these plans could change between now and the game’s launch window.
Activision spokesperson Neil Wood did reaffirm that a “premium Call of Duty” game will be releasing this year, but revealed no additional details, saying the company has “nothing new to share.”
Stay tuned here at MP1st for all upcoming Call of Duty 2023 announcements and updates, as well as our active, detailed coverage of Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.
Source: Bloomberg