‘Stay frosty’
According to an intriguing recent tweet, there seems to be a new Call of Duty title on the way – with a twist.
A new Call of Duty being announced is nothing surprising. After all, the franchise has been an annual release since it began in 2003. However we haven’t actually had an Infinity Ward-produced Call of Duty since the Modern Warfare reboot back in 2019.
There has, of course, been the standalone success of Warzone since then, not to mention both Black Ops Cold War and Vanguard running on the IW engine, but this latest announcement from the long-time collaborators suggests a firmly in-house instalment and “a new generation” is heading our way later this year.
A new generation of Call of Duty is coming soon.
Stay frosty.
— Infinity Ward (@InfinityWard) February 3, 2022
As you can see from the announcement, there isn’t much detail at this early stage but IW CoDs are some of the most beloved in the series, bursting onto the scene with Modern Warfare 2 – an iconic title that remains one of the biggest-ever in the first person shooter genre.
On the other hand, given the LA-based devs teased more information would be “coming soon”, many are wondering whether the next iteration might be released earlier than initially expected, especially given that Vanguard didn’t exactly hit the ground running.
Seems like people actually doing nothing is more entertaining than Vanguardhttps://t.co/vt6pyE4h1e
— JOE (@JOE_co_uk) January 5, 2022
New CoDs are typically released in the busy fall window around October and November but since publishers Activision Blizzard now have the might of Microsoft behind them, who knows how quickly the next game will arrive?
Moreover, as it was Modern Warfare where Infinity Ward were last at the helm proper, it’s a fair guess that the next instalment could be another slightly confusingly-named sequel. In fact, it is already rumoured that as many as 11 studios are working on MW2 and, as per infamous leaker Tom Henderson, it could be a South American, Narcos-inspired take:
It looks like Call of Duty: 2022 is codenamed Project Cortez
It's expected to be a sequel to Modern Warfare 2019.
— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) September 13, 2021
The name Cortez is currently thought to be a reference to the Sinaloa Cartel which operates in a number of regions around the Gulf of California – aka the Sea of Cortés. This would certainly be a fresh take for the franchise and something to mix up the annual release monotony this odd entry slides into.
Activision subsidiaries Treyarch, Sledgehammer and Raven Software have all had their turn over the last couple of years and there’s no doubt the studios will be helping to fashion the latest title in some capacity – but Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty‘s usually hit the mark. It’s early doors but we dare say we’re excited for what might come next for CoD.
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