There has been some confusion over what 2023 is going to hold for the Call of Duty franchise. Initial reports claimed that the series would be breaking its long-standing annual release cycle and skip 2023, though Activision has since said it still plans to release “full premium content” for Call of Duty this year.
Subsequent leaks have since then claimed that the content refers to large-scale expansions for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which will include remastered multiplayer maps from past Call of Duty titles as well as a new single player campaign. Now, however, report published by Insider Gaming claims that this year’s premium release is going to be a full new standalone entry after all.
Insider Gaming states that though the new content did initially start development as DLC for Modern Warfare 2, the project changed during development and is now set to be a full new Call of Duty game. Though described as “a huge collaborative project across all of Activision’s Call of Duty studios”, it’s claimed that Sledgehammer Games will be the lead developer, which aligns with previous leaks.
Meanwhile, the report also claims the new game will be “heavily connected” to the Modern Warfare series, though it’s currently unknown if it will be called Modern Warfare 3.
In the same report, Insider Gaming also provided details on the game’s exact release date, campaign early access launch, and its beta periods. Read more on that through here.