'Call of Duty' 2023 Delayed: Activision Blizzard Taking Shocking Break, But New Online Game Teased

According to a Bloomberg report, Activision Blizzard is delaying their next "Call of Duty" game. Instead of a new title in 2023, players can look forward to more "Call of Duty: Warzone 2" content and a rumored free-to-play version of the game.

Note that over these last two decades, Activision Blizzard has always released a new installment of "Call of Duty" annually. With that said, this development shocked a lot fans.

'Call of Duty' 2023 Delayed

As Jason Schreier of Bloomberg noted,.last year's "Call of Duty: Vanguard" failed to meet Activation Blizzard's expectations. Sales were low, which led executives to think "it had been cannibalized by the previous year's game."

Some gamers also shared this sentiment as they criticize the annual releases for their "poor quality."

Aside from these issues, it is worth noting that Microsoft is in the middle of taking over Activision Blizzard. All these factors might have contributed to an inevitable delay in the series.

Activision Blizzard Taking a Break?

Schreier tweeted the highlights of the development. He said the "Call of Duty" 2023 game, which is developed by "Call of Duty: Black Ops" maker Treyarch, will be pushed back to 2024.

So for next year, the firm will focus its efforts on "a free-to-play game" and new content for "2022's Modern Warfare."

Schreier emphasized that Activision Blizzard's decision to delay is independent from Microsoft's acquisition. The delay was reportedly decided based on the "Call of Duty: Vanguard" underperformance ratings.

Note, however, that an hour after the tweets came out, Schreier posted that Activision released a "non-denial denial statement." The spokesperson wrote that "we (Activision Blizzard) have an exciting slate of premium and free-to-play Call of Duty experiences for this year, next year, and beyond. We look forward to sharing more details when the time is right."

Although this statement did not discuss anything about Activision Blizzard's 2023 delay, it confirmed that new content should still be coming.

New 'CoD' Online Game Coming?

The Verge suspects this new game might be the rumored "Modern Warfare" sequel, which is teased as "a new Warzone experience." The game is scheduled to come out later this year, probably some time in fall, so the wait shouldn't be too long.

It is worth pointing out that rumors repeatedly mentioned the "free-to-play" version for the "Call of Duty" series. Unfortunately for fans, not many details were mentioned about this project, so it's hard to tell if the game is related to any of the older "Call of Duty" series or something else entirely new.

Be warned that since many of the information are taken from leaks and speculations, details are subject to change.