According to Digital Trends, Bloomberg has previously cited many reasons for the delay of Call of Duty, including the fact that the current version has not lived up to expectations and the company's focus has shifted to a free version. of the game title.
Bloomberg says Activision is pushing back the release after a recent version of Call of Duty failed to live up to expectations, leading some executives to believe they were introducing new versions too quickly.
This decision has nothing to do with Activision's agreement to sell itself to Microsoft Corporation for $69 billion."
Soon after, Activision denied the claims in the Bloomberg report. In its statement, a company spokesperson said: “We have a wide range of premium and free-to-play Call of Duty experiences for this year, next year and beyond.
Reports of anything else are incorrect. We look forward to sharing more details when the time is right.”
Even so, it's unclear if this statement implies a major Call of Duty release is still planned for next year. An earlier Bloomberg report said that Activision is working on upcoming projects to fill the void left by the absence of Call of Duty.
One of these projects is a content update for Call of Duty released last fall. There is also a free version of Call of Duty due out in 2023.
Developer Treyarch is said to be shifting focus to that project instead of working on the next major release. The focus of this stems from the success of Call of Duty: Warzone and the low sales of Call of Duty: Vanguard. Bloomberg reports that the success of Warzone and the subsequent release of Vanguard led executives to suspect that Vanguard was influenced by the previous Warzone.
While the status of Call of Duty is a big question mark, Microsoft's acquisition of Call of Duty's parent company could change the plans of the next main title once the deal closes next summer. Microsoft previously noted that the series will still be available on non-Xbox platforms.