Activision confirms new Call of Duty game coming in 2021

Keshav Bhat

Activision has officially confirmed during their Investor Call on February 4 that there’s a new Call of Duty game coming this year. 

The company has not acknowledged which development team is working on the 2021 Call of Duty game, similar to the 2020 Investor Call in February 2020. The company’s executives only started that a new ‘premium’ experience to the franchise will launch later this year. 

Since 2014, Call of Duty was on a three development cycle with Sledgehammer Games, Treyarch, and Infinity Ward rotating in the development cycles. The development cycle was broken in 2020 when Treyarch stepped in on a two year cycle to release Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War with Raven Software.

The current rumors suggest Sledgehammer Games is working on the 2021 Call of Duty title. 

The studio has been absent from the spotlight since 2017, when they released Call of Duty: WWII. Following that release, Sledgehammer Games experienced a turbulent year in 2018 with the studio heads departing and many employees following. The studio has rebuilt with over 150 new developers in 2020 alone. 

Activision has not announced any specific details regarding Call of Duty 2021. 

Activision usually reveals the new Call of Duty titles sometime in May (although Black Ops Cold War was revealed in August) with the game’s launch in October/November.

The 2021 Call of Duty title will also be running parallel to Call of Duty: Warzone’s continued success, similar to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Activision’s President Rob Kostich confirmed during the same call that Warzone will be ‘central’ to the future of the franchise and will continue its integration throughout the franchise.

2020 was a record breaking year for the Call of Duty franchise with over 250 million players playing Call of Duty across platforms. The franchise now has over 100 million monthly active players compared to 48 million monthly players in 2018.

As always, stay tuned to CharlieIntel for the latest news on Call of Duty 2021