New Call of Duty game ‘looks great and on track for release in 2020’

Activision Blizzard has said development of this year’s premium Call of Duty game is progressing well and the title is on target to hit its planned 2020 release window.

“Looking ahead, the next premium release for Call of Duty already looks great and remains on track for release later this year,” newly appointed president and COO Daniel Alegre said during the publisher’s first quarter earnings call on Tuesday.

During its fourth quarter earnings call back in February, Alegre’s predecessor Coddy Johnson (now special adviser to CEO Bobby Kotick) confirmed plans to release the new Call of Duty game between October and December this year.

“The franchise has never been better positioned for growth and there’s more to come, including entirely new experiences within the Modern Warfare universe and then of course, in Q4 this year, a new premium Call of Duty release which is already generating excitement in our playtests,” he said.

In mid-April, Kotick suggested it was too early to know if any of the company’s games would be delayed following its switch to remote working in order to combat the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Activision reportedly overhauled its plans for 2020’s Call of Duty game following a dispute between previous joint lead studios Sledgehammer and Raven, putting Black Ops developer Treyarch in charge of the project instead.

In March 2020, a noted Call of Duty leaker claimed that this year’s premium franchise instalment will be a gritty Black Ops reboot.

Black Ops 5 will likely be a cross-gen game, to coincide with the launch of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X during the 2020 holiday season.

Activision also said on Tuesday that Call of Duty: Warzone has attracted over 60 million players since releasing on March 10, while 2019’s Modern Warfare has sold more copies and has more players “than any prior Call of Duty title at this point after its release”.