Yup, Modern Warfare 3 is this year’s Call of Duty

thesixthaxis.com:

Activision has confirmed what energy drinks already knew: this year’s Call of Duty game is Modern Warfare 3 (stylised as Modern Warfare III), and that it’s coming out on 10th November 2023.

The teaser trailer is filled with little details that series fans can pick on, and the game is almost certain to pick up the narrative threads from the end of Modern Warfare II, as this rebooted series remixes plot beats from the original Modern Warfare series. Yeah, it definitely seems like Makarov is making his return in this one and there’s the voice over warning to “Never bury your enemies alive.”

Modern Warfare III looks to be in development with Sledgehammer Games taking the lead – the studio changed their logo on Twitter alongside the announcement and this has been widely reported. It’s a curious twist of fate, as Sledgehammer developed the single player for the original Modern Warfare 3 after the acrimonious fallout between Infinity Ward’s founders and Activision way back when.

Reports had been that the original plan from Activision was for Modern Warfare II to have a two year lifespan, supported heavily by live service seasonal updates, and Sledgehammer was developing a smaller narrative DLC expansion as part of this. However, this soon morphed into being a full game, with the full network of Call of Duty studios falling in to support with a renewed suite of multiplayer options to try and beef this up into a full COD game release.

However, don’t expect a totally fresh start on this one. As we’ve seen in recent years, there’s often been continuity from one Call of Duty to the next, primarily through the Warzone battle royale game and the many progression unlocks that it ties into. We’re yet to see official confirmation, but it