Call of Duty 2023 will be a "full premium release," Activision insists

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Insiders continue to report next year's game will be a big Modern Warfare 2 expansion

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) screenshot
(Image credit: Activision)

Activision Blizzard insists that 2023 will still see the release of a "full premium" Call of Duty title, seemingly pushing back on reports that the series would be skipping a year following the launch of Modern Warfare 2.

"Activision is looking forward to building on its current momentum in 2023," the company says in its latest financial results press release, "with plans for next year including the most robust Call of Duty live operations to date, the next full premium release in the blockbuster annual series, and even more engaging free-to-play experiences across platforms."

The wording about the "next full premium release in the blockbuster annual series" seemingly pushes back on a Bloomberg report from back in February, which suggested that there would be no mainline Call of Duty launch in 2023.

Activision has, in fact, been pushing back on that report for months, saying in February that it has "an exciting slate of premium and free-to-play Call of Duty experiences for this year, next year and beyond." The company further asserted in August that the Call of Duty team has "new premium content planned for 2023 and beyond."

More recent reports suggest that 2023's Call of Duty game might actually be a premium-priced expansion for Modern Warfare 2, and Bloomberg's Jason Schreier is reiterating that in a tweet following today's press release from Activision.

Call of Duty 2023 will be a premium paid expansion for Modern Warfare 2 developed by Sledgehammer, while the true next entry in the series, developed by Treyarch, won't launch until 2024, according to Schreier.

Dustin Bailey
Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.