According to a new report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, Activision is delaying the release of Treyarch’s Call of Duty game currently scheduled for release in 2023 to 2024. This is a historical fact as it has been nearly two decades without an annual main Call of Duty entry.
The COD title from Infinity Ward, the sequel to Modern Warfare, is still on track for a fall 2022 release. Treyarch has historically worked on the Black Ops series of games as part of the COD franchise.
According to sales figures, Call of Duty Vanguard, despite being a clear success, did not live up to the publisher’s expectations and was not as successful as previous installments in the series. This has sparked speculation and speculation that the next COD games are being delayed and break the annual release structure to ensure polish and quality.
Treyarch’s 2023 Call of Duty game reportedly delayed by one year
Treyarch’s last game was Black Ops Cold War.
The prevailing view in the video game community is that the COD franchise suffers from a lack of innovation and polish due to its yearly release structure. While on the one hand this provides a steady supply of Call of Duty in the video game world, Activision and their COD studios have to contend with fatigue.
In our review of COD Vanguard by Sledgehammer Games, we stated that the game is not exactly a breath of fresh air, but rather the same. Despite its high production value, Vanguard suffered from an annual release cycle as the game lacked much innovation.
Perhaps the two-year break between the planned sequel to Modern Warfare and the next Treyarch game is exactly what the franchise needs to fully realize the new installment in the series. The same formula seems to have worked for Assassin’s Creed as Ubisoft decided to ditch the yearly release cycle in favor of longer development cycles for each post-AC Syndicate game.
The result has been a flurry of positive reviews for games like Odyssey, Origins and Valhalla. AC Valhalla is now even the most profitable game in the series. It will be interesting to see if COD follows a similar trajectory.