Call of Duty 2023 reportedly delayed by a year, leaving Modern Warfare 2 to carry the franchise

pocket-lint.com:

(Pocket-lint) — The planned Call of Duty game for 2023 has been delayed into 2024 in order to allow its developer, Treyarch, more time to polish and finish the title, according to a new report from Bloomberg.

It means that 2022's release, a sequel to the 2019 hit reboot Modern Warfare, will get a full two-year cycle of content and support from its developers, something that should please large swathes of the game's community.

The bombshell decision will mean a calendar year goes by without a mainline COD release for the first time since 2005, but there are multiple justifications floating around for it. For one, the last COD release, Vanguard, sold under expectations due to suspected over-saturation.

For another, the ending of support for each game after roughly a year has proved controversial — and, finally, the behemoth of free-to-play Warzone means that the franchise's focus possibly doesn't have to be as laser-tuned on annual releases.

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Given that Infinity Ward is cooking up not just 2022's COD game but also a reboot and upgrade for Warzone that will wipe its slate clean, it sounds like there could be a two-year period when it really has the reigns over the whole franchise, at least outside of COD Mobile, something that its core fanbase is likely to welcome.

It would also seem that the decision is one that Activision has made independently from its upcoming acquisition by Microsoft, although if and when that purchase is finalised the situation could obviously change.

Treyarch is presumed to be working on a sequel to 2020's Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, so the news is also likely to be a boon for fans of that