Call of Duty Could Reportedly Ditch the Annual Release Schedule

Call of Duty Could Reportedly Ditch the Annual Release Schedule

9
Matt Lorrigan

Call of Duty could be moving away from its annual release schedule in the future, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Following the $68 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, Bloomberg reports that high-level employees at Activision are discussing moving away from Call of Duty's annual release schedule, with Call of Duty developers believe that releasing new games in the franchise less often will benefit players, the franchise, and allow more opportunity for Activision's developers to work on other titles.

“Activision has long followed a traditional business model, chasing big blockbusters such as Call of Duty and Candy Crush while ditching franchises with less potential, such as StarCraft,” Bloomberg reports. “Xbox takes a different approach due to its Game Pass, a Netflix-like subscription plan that allows users to pay a monthly fee for access to a large variety of games. Thanks to Game Pass, not every game needs to be a massive hit to be considered a success. Xbox’s strategy has been to fund and acquire a variety of eclectic titles that may help draw new subscribers.”

The hope is that, under Microsoft, developers will be given more creative freedom, possibly leading to less developers leaving Activision to pursue other game ideas. 

Activision has plenty of dormant IP that Microsoft could look into reviving - we actually put together our own list of eight that we'd like to see make a return - and with Call of Duty releasing new games less frequently, we might hopefully see talented development studios like Vicarious Visions, Toys For Bob, and Raven Software able to work on more interesting and varied projects once again.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has also said that Xbox wants to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation platforms, following the merger.

Comments
9
  • Even with each of the three studios doing the current 3 year cycles it gets bogged down on the consumer.
    You dont hear about any crunch on COD games
  • I’m hoping so, mainly so High Moon Studios can be free from having to give support and start making games again
  • Yes. This would be great. Let developers try something else. Make your major games less often to help fund the creation of new games that could be future major games. Try stuff experiment.
  • i've not played a Cod since MW3 on the 360.
  • Release every other year and keep infinity ward and Treyarch alternating so 4 year cycle.

    I got board with forza so it was nice when it skipped a year
  • I think it could only help make future call of duty games better cause they would have more time to work on them. As well as allowing for new IP’s to be made too.

    I just recently picked up Vanguard series x version on sale for $35 I haven’t paid full price for a game in at least 2 or more years.

    …I’ve learned not to buy right away when most of the time the games don’t even work properly at launch or is missing a good chunk of what should be there at launch.

    I wish everyone else was the same way, maybe they would start getting the hint and stop making shit at launch.
  • @Radiant I think that was the last one I touched too.

    @1 something to be said for that!
  • Oh no, what ever will we do without a yearly CoD release.
  • Still baffled by the price of the deal. I guess it must be because of WoW and Activisions Mobile endeavors, which I don't know or care much about, but as a PC/console gamer the Bethesda studios and IPs seem way more valueable to me.
    Blizzard just coasts by on past glory and the only not creatively bankrupt game Activision has put out in the last decade was Crash 4.
    CoD is the gaming equivalent to McDonalds. Complete garbage that is engeneered to be addictive to children.
    Would rather have Microsoft buy someone else and maybe in addition buy off some dorment IP from A/B. I had the feeling as if pretty much everything A/B is holding is on the decline, but maybe otherwise it would've costed even more. But what do I know. Spencer is a savy manager and he probably knows what he's doing.
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