Activision has confirmed a ‘full premium Call of Duty release’ is planned for 2023

Activision has confirmed that it intends to deliver “the next full premium release” in the Call of Duty series in 2023.

The publisher announced the plans for the series as part of its third quarter financial results on Monday.

“Activision is looking forward to building on its current momentum in 2023, 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,” it said.

It’s unclear what form the premium release will take, but Bloomberg previously claimed Activision had chosen to hold back the next mainline entry in the Call of Duty series, which is expected to be developed by Black Ops studio Treyarch, essentially skipping a release for the first time in two decades.

Let me make this super clear:
- The next game, by Treyarch, is coming out in 2024 
- Next year there will be a Modern Warfare II "premium" (paid) expansion by Sledgehammer
- It's supposed to have lots of content! Maybe that's why they call it a "full" release. But it's more MWII https://t.co/jXKAiMFcTf
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) November 7, 2022

There has been speculation that Activision could release a spin-off game, such as the long-rumoured standalone Call of Duty Zombies title.

It’s also reportedly planning to release premium campaign content for Modern Warfare 2 in 2023, and potentially a ‘greatest hits’ pack containing multiplayer maps from a variety of classic Call of Duty games to celebrate the franchise’s 20th anniversary.

Activision claimed on Monday that Modern Warfare 2 continues to be the fastest-selling entry in the series following its release on October 28.

Further reading

Concept art for Call of Duty: Black Ops 5 has reportedly appeared online

The images suggest the game could take place during the Gulf War

Having topped $800 million in sales in its first three days of availability, Modern Warfare 2 crossed the $1 billion mark in 10 days.

In doing so it surpassed the record previously held by 2012’s Black Ops 2, which took 15 days to reach $1 billion in sales.