Activision Promises “Next Full Premium” Call of Duty in 2023

Activision Blizzard announced in its quarterly financial report released on Monday that it has plans to release the “next full premium release in the blockbuster annual series” of Call of Duty games in 2023. That wouldn’t normally be noteworthy, considering Call of Duty’s consistent autumn release schedule, but Bloomberg reported in February that Activision Blizzard was planning to postpone its annual entry for 2023.

The negative reception to 2021’s Call of Duty: Vanguard reportedly forced Activision Blizzard to postpone the 2023 game. Furthermore, Bloomberg reported in January that the firm was contemplating to revise its annual reports.

Activision Blizzard attempted to refute the report at the time, while the company did not provide an official confirmation that a 2023 game will indeed be released. For this year, next year, and beyond, we have an exciting schedule of premium and free-to-play Call of Duty experiences,” Activision spokesperson Neil Wood stated in a statement back in February. “Any rumors to the contrary are false. When the time is appropriate, we hope to provide further specifics.”

In addition to the traditional annual premium releases, Activision has made further investments in the brand in recent years. It would have been understandable for the corporation to take a year off between the releases of Call of Duty: Mobile, the Warzone battle royale (which is having a 2.0 version later this month), and the impending mobile Warzone release in 2023.

This won’t be the case in 2023, though, since Activision Blizzard has already announced yet another major Call of Duty product for the year, probably encouraged by the massive success of the recently released Modern Warfare II. Here is what the company had to say regarding the franchise in 2019, including the next yearly game:

Activision is looking forward to building on its current momentum in 2023, 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.

Activision Blizzard also stated in its earnings report that it may be unable to reach an agreement with “a third party” to licence “several” of its games in China. The business announced that the agreements, which accounted for “about” 3% of its consolidated net revenues in 2021, will end in January of 2023. It’s possible that we won’t be able to come to an agreement on renewing these contracts. However, the company’s co-development and publishing partnership for Diablo Immortal with NetEase remains unaffected because it is governed by a separate agreement.

Announced in January, Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard is still making its way through regulatory processes. Microsoft’s fiscal year ends in June of 2023, so the deal should close around then.

Read Also: Modern Warfare II: Why Call of Duty is changing?