Activision Teases 'Full Premium' Call of Duty Release Coming in 2023
Activision is planning to drop its "next full premium release" in the Call of Duty series in 2023, the company announced Monday.
The announcement was made in Activision's third quarter 2022 results report, seemingly adding some confusion as to what its plans are for the series moving forward.
Breaking: Activision’s new financial release seems to confirm there’s a new, full premium Call of Duty game in 2023.
— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) November 7, 2022
“with plans for next year including the most robust Call of Duty live operations to date, the next full premium release in the blockbuster annual series.” pic.twitter.com/n0GVH1C8Wf
The report was notably highlighted on Twitter by CharlieIntel, who reported that the PR statement's awkward language seemingly confirmed Call of Duty won't be skipping an annual release after all.
"Activision is looking forward to building on its current momentum in 2023," the earnings report reads, "with plans for next year including the most robust Call of Duty live operations to date, the next full premium release in the blockbuster annual series, and even more engaging free-to-play experiences across platforms."
As mentioned in the statement, the "next full premium release in the blockbuster annual series" line seems to suggest that Activision will be releasing a new Call of Duty title in 2023.
This, of course, would go against numerous reports and leaks made in previous months. As reported by Bloomberg in February, Activision's next three Call of Duty releases are expected to be Modern Warfare II, Warzone 2.0 and a 2024 mainline title being developed by Treyarch. MW2 would then receive an unusual two years of shine in the series' spotlight, with a rumored Modern Warfare 2 (2009) map pack and campaign DLC coming to fill the gap in 2023.
Soon enough, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier replied to the CharlieIntel tweet to stand by his previous reporting, mentioning that people are "falling for the same PR language."
"It's a continuation of Modern Warfare II," Schreier tweeted. "It's called a full premium release because they're probably going to market and sell it as a $70 game with new single- and multiplayer content. But it's more MWII."
No, it's like an expansion but big enough that they can sell it for full price
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) November 7, 2022
Schreier went on to tweet that the "full premium release" in 2023 will simply be a "Modern Warfare II 'premium' (paid) expansion by Sledgehammer."