The Call of Duty series, a sales juggernaut since its debut in 2003, will for the first time in decades be skipping a year. There will be no game in its 20th anniversary year, say reports that Activision has delayed next year’s mainline game.
While this year’s Modern Warfare release is still on track, and there are other Call of Duty projects in the works, Bloomberg reports that whatever main entry in the series was coming next has been pushed back. This means that for the first time since 2004—before some readers will have been born—the world will see a holiday season without a Call of Duty game propping up the sales charts.
Look at this:
Bloomberg’s report says the decision to delay the game came “after a recent entry in the series failed to meet expectations, leading some executives to believe that they’re introducing new versions too rapidly.” It eludes me why this occurred to them now, and not ten years ago when games like Ghosts had already begun to disappoint, but whatever. I’m not on Activision’s board of directors.
Apparently this decision was made entirely by Activision, and was “not related to Activision’s agreement to sell itself to Microsoft Corp. for $69 billion.” If you were wondering what the publisher would be planning to release in its stead, Bloomberg adds:
Activision is working on other projects to fill the gap next year. A Call of Duty game set to come out this fall will receive a steady stream of additional content, and there will be a new, free-to-play online title next year, said the people. Treyarch, the Activision-owned studio working on the now-delayed game, will also help with the free-to-play title, the people said.
I know that “annual game skips one year” might not seem like too big a deal, but try to remember what you were doing in 2004, then look at what you’re doing/where you are/how old you are now, and realise, Jesus Christ, Activision has had to put a Call of Duty game on the shelf every Christmas that whole time.