New Call Of Duty Confirmed For 2021 Release Date

In a not-so-shocking announcement, Activision has revealed that a new installment in the Call of Duty series will be released in 2021. The popular shooter franchise will not be breaking its nearly 20-year long streak of annual releases this year, despite some hiccups on their last entry. The machine had been rather well-oiled up until 2020 with the release of Black Ops Cold War, which still released on time despite the fact that Black Ops Cold War has been wrought with glitches.

Sledgehammer Games was meant to release a Call of Duty game in 2020 but after allegedly butting heads with Raven Software, who Sledgehammer was partnered up with, the game underwent major changes. Treyarch was called up to bat by their publisher, Activision, and told they would need to release their Call of Duty game a year earlier than expected. Sledgehammer’s game was retooled into a Black Ops game once Treyarch came aboard, which saw the developer handling multiplayer and zombies while Raven made the campaign. The game released on time, even after having to work around a pandemic, and was largely a success.

All of this development chaos makes it unclear which developer will be developing the next Call of Duty. Activision announced the untitled Call of Duty game for 2021 during their recent earning’s call but gave absolutely no details. The publisher will usually offer a nugget of info, such as the developer, a tease for the premise, or confirm if it’ll have a traditional campaign. None of that was present at the earning’s call, making many wonder what the situation is for this year’s entry. It also remains to be seen if the games will be developed exclusively for next-gen consoles like PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X, or if the game will still work on the previous console generation. The series has always had a rotation of developers, between Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer, then Treyarch. With the recent development issues for Black Ops Cold War, that’s been completely thrown off.

Whether Activision decides to do a smaller scale title, such as a remaster of Modern Warfare 2’s multiplayer, or something else that allows the studios to have a contained focus on just multiplayer remains to be seen. It’s possible that when Sledgehammer was pulled off of the 2020 Call of Duty installment, the studio was given more time to flesh out whatever the team was making at the time. It’s also possible Sledgehammer just started something entirely new. Either way, the three-year development cycle has been broken. The 2021 Call of Duty will likely have less time in the oven in comparison to the last generation of Call of Duty titles, but it won’t slow down Activision’s multi-billion dollar machine.

Previous rumors have suggested Infinity Ward could be fast-tracking a sequel to their Modern Warfare reboot but nothing has been confirmed. Activision has a lot of studios under its ownership, many of which already act as support teams for Call of Duty. It’s not unlikely to have all hands on deck to ensure the 2021 entry can get out the door as smoothly as possible. Call of Duty games typically get revealed in the spring or summer, so it’s likely we’ll hear more about the next title around that time.

Source: Activision

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Cade Onder
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Cade Onder is a 20-year old video game, movie, and chicken tender enthusiast. He has been writing about games since he was 14 and is always trying to learn more about the gaming industry. You can follow him on Twitter @Cade_Onder for bad jokes, bad takes, and pictures of chicken tenders.

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