Discounts and a free week did little to improve the app's Steam numbers, which plummeted after the release of Black Ops 7.
Alongside Roblox and Minecraft, these titles remained the most-played on Xbox and PlayStation, nearly mirroring their 2024 standings.
"We will get a better Call of Duty thanks to Battlefield," wrote Ybarra who previously said the latter would "boot stomp" the former this year.
The job listing is for a senior technical artist (animation tools), and likely involves the development of a brand new Call of Duty game.
In 16 years since then, the Call of Duty series has only lost the top sales position to three games: GTA 5, RDR2 and Hogwarts Legacy.
Despite launching eight years, the subscription service reportedly still isn't generating the desired revenue for Microsoft.
Despite its strong opening-week sales on the PS5, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle hasn't managed to crack the most-played lists yet.
That would make Call of Duty the second-highest selling video game franchise of all time, second only to Mario.
It also saw increased year-on-year sales on PlayStation and Steam, and set a record for adding new Game Pass subscribers on the day of its release.
The debate has reportedly been going on internally for some time, with concerns about Game Pass undercutting Call of Duty's revenue.
Vicarious Visions was ultimately folded into Blizzard Entertainment in 2021, before being renamed to Blizzard Albany.
It's been claimed that Microsoft is preparing an announcement related to past Call of Duty titles at its summer showcase.
Call of Duty is still up in the air, but "back-end work" is going on for Activision Blizzard's other titles, according to Microsoft's Phil Spencer.
Initially leaked in 2022, the next Call of Duty is reportedly a sequel to Treyarch's Black Ops franchise and set during the Gulf War.
Sledgehammer Games is one of several studios across Microsoft's entire gaming division to be affected by widespread layoffs.
"In my first month it came out he threatened to have an employee killed," says former Demonware developer Christina Pollock.
Leaked documents reveal Sony is concerned about the "incredible strategic value" Activision's acquisition will provide to Microsoft.
Is it time for Call of Duty to move on?
Though there's plenty to like about Call of Duty games, at the same time, there's also no shortage of issues to find with how the series operates.
According to Xbox boss Phil Spencer, Call of Duty will have 100 percent content parity on all platforms.
