Report: Activision Debating Ditching Annual Call of Duty Releases

There has been a new Call of Duty every single year since 2005, a trend that started with Call of Duty 2. However, the series might be moving away from annualized releases, according to a new report.

Bloomberg reports that “high-level employees at Activision” have talked about ditching the yearly Call of Duty installments, but nothing has been finalized yet. There are multiple reasons for wanting to move in the direction.

Creating these Call of Duty games has led to “brutal overtime” as these teams try to put out a game under strict deadlines. Past Call of Duty titles have struggled behind the scenes and had to be reworked to hit their holiday dates. For example, Black Ops 4 reportedly shipped without a campaign because of technical problems and negative feedback, something Treyarch publicly contradicted. Black Ops Cold War was allegedly a “mess” about a year and a half before its release as Sledgehammer Games was pulled from the project. Treyarch then led development on the title quickly after leading its last entry.

2021’s Vanguard not only went on to sell less than Cold War, but its Zombies mode was also widely panned for being incomplete and even lacked a main quest. Treyarch had developed Vanguard‘s Zombie mode and when coupled with the troubles with Black Ops 4 and Cold War, it’s possible that the studio was being stretched too thin; a byproduct of Call of Duty‘s annual release schedule.

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This report also cites the belief among many of Call of Duty‘s developers that time off between games would “please players and help bolster the franchise.” Spacing out releases might help stave off franchise fatigue, which is a constant fight for an annual series.

Bloomberg also states that this possible shift might not happen until 2023 or later. While this year’s Call of Duty has yet to be officially announced, a report from Video Games Chronicle claims that it will be Modern Warfare 2.

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A byproduct of loosening the release schedule for Call of Duty would mean other studios would be able to make different games. For example, Toys For Bob, the developer behind Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time and the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, theoretically might be able to be more when not being forced to be a Call of Duty support studio, a position it moved into after Crash 4 shipped. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer even talked to the Washington Post about getting developers to work on different franchises in the Activision Blizzard stable. Microsoft’s prioritization of Game Pass calls for a variety of titles, which is far from Activision’s focus on blockbusters, meaning a variety of smaller titles might be better than a a very small handful of big ones.

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