Activision has officially teased 2023’s Call of Duty after months of leaks. Titled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, it will seemingly be a direct sequel to last year’s game, and it’s coming out on November 10.
None of that is unexpected at this point, considering Activision has released a new full-priced Call of Duty every year since the series debuted back in 2003. Today’s reveal was accompanied by a 41-second teaser in which grizzled Modern Warfare protagonist Captain Price mentions something about the heads of snakes and says, “never bury your enemies alive,” possibly an allusion to Russian ultranationalist leader Vladimir Makarov, the main antagonist of the original Modern Warfare III.
Whatever the reboot brings, it will seemingly fit right on top of the existing joint live-service platform established with last year’s entry and Warzone 2.0. The Call of Duty Twitter account previously teased that all of players’ existing operators, weapons, and cosmetic bundles would carry over between Modern Warfare II and III. Tons of new and returning weapons and killstreaks have also seemingly leaked ahead of the game’s official showcase, expected sometime before the end of August.
It also looks like a fan-favourite maneuver is getting added back into the series. Over the weekend, Call of Duty content creator FaZe Swagg posted a video showing he had received a “slide” sandal, a random can of food, and an old cellphone, hinting at the return of the 2019 Modern Warfare’s slide-cancelling mechanic. It allowed high-level players to skip around maps much quicker than their opponents but was removed in Warzone 2.0 and Modern Warfare II, leading some players to experiment with less efficient alternatives.
The biggest question remains just how much of a full-fledged Call of Duty game the November 2023 one will be. Bloomberg had previously reported that Activision was looking at skipping this year in terms of a new annualized release as the franchise buckles under the weight of all the costs and studios required to keep pumping out sequels. Expanded DLC developed with the assistance of Sledgehammer Games would fill in the gap instead, it was reported.
Whether Modern Warfare III ends up feeling more like a smaller stand-alone update remains to be seen. We don’t yet know whether it will be priced at the new standard “next-gen” rate of $70. What we do know is that it will still be coming to PlayStation 5 as previously expected, despite the finalization of Microsoft’s deal to acquire Activision Blizzard fast approaching. The tech giant confirmed a 10-year agreement to continue supporting Activision games on Sony’s platform even after they technically become part of Xbox Game Studios.
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