For The First Time In Nearly Two Decades, Call Of Duty Won't Be Releasing A New Game In 2023 And That's The Best Thing That Could Happen To The Franchise

MASSIVE NEWS: For the first time in nearly two decades, Call of Duty won't be releasing a new title in 2023. Modern Warfare 2 is still scheduled to release later this year in 2022. 

When I heard this news, I had a weird sense of relief. Every Call of Duty that's dropped lately has felt rushed and incomplete upon release. They're fun for a few weekends because they're new and different, but they typically don't stand the test of time.

Now Activision is giving Call of Duty one more year to fully develop their games. I'm expecting this to pay off massively down the road when considering the game's life span, completeness and overall franchise health. 

What this means in the short term is that Modern Warfare 2 is going to have a 2 year life cycle. That's worrisome to some degree because we've never seen a Call of Duty with over a year life span. Certain games in the past have stood the test of time and been very playable for years after release (Black Ops 3, CoD 4, Black Ops 2), but they've never been forced to have a 2 year life span. So if MW2 is a massive hit, then everyone will be happy by having a game supported for two years. 

However, it will be very weird to not have a new Call of Duty title in 2023. It's become a staple in the gaming community - yearly CoD launch in November and then stomp on Christmas Noobs over school break.

For the past few years, Call of Duties have lost their lust for a lot of gamers. Warzone was revolutionary and saved a lot of us during Covid, but Warzone also attracted gamers away from multiplayer Call of Duty and onto the battle royale version of CoD. So, this change isn't nearly as impactful as missing a release back in the multiplayer golden age. The gamers that want to play BR will play Warzone and the people that wanna grind multiplayer will stick with MW2/Vanguard. (My review of Vanguard ranked below)

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I'm really happy to see the developers choosing to focus on the game's quality and overall health, then just rushing the game to hit their annual sales goals. If this is executed properly, it'll be one of the best things to happen to the Call of Duty franchise. Treyarch, take this extra year for development and do your thing. I trust you more than any other Call of Duty developer - give us an unbelievable campaign with an amazing zombies storyline. Top it off with fun competitive maps that also have balanced weapons. Bring us back to love CoD multiplayer like we used to.

One thing that MUST change is to have the game be fully ready upon release. No more of these ridiculous multiplayer glitches or bugs. Also, make sure ranked play is ready to go upon release. It doesn't have to drop exactly when the game drops, but add it a week or two once the game is out - capture all those players excited for a new Call of Duty and introduce them into the professional Call of Duty scene.

Overall, this is a great move for Call of Duty and I couldn't be more excited to see how this impacts the franchise down the road.

That Microsoft acquisition seems to already be impacting the brand positively…