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A new year means a new Call of Duty and this year’s entry will be developed by Infinity Ward.
To maintain Call of Duty’s annual release cycle, Activision rotates development across three developers, Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer, with other studios lending support.
Infinity Ward is once again up to bad having previously developed 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, as well as the ongoing Call of Duty: Warzone. Infinity Ward’s official Twitter account confirmed the news by tweeting that a “new generation of Call of Duty is coming soon,” along with the words, “Stay frosty.”
A new generation of Call of Duty is coming soon.
— Infinity Ward (@InfinityWard) February 3, 2022
Stay frosty.
This could mean that Infinity Ward is working on a sequel in the Modern Warfare series given the 2019 reboot was met with positive reviews and commercial success. Leaks previously suggested that the next Call of Duty is indeed a Modern Warfare sequel and that 11 studios are hard at work on it.
As far as features and storylines, Activision is keeping those under wraps. In the latest financials, Acitivison simply says that Infinity Ward is “working on the most ambitious plan in franchise history, with industry-leading innovation and a broadly appealing franchise setting.”
Last year Activision released Call of Duty: Vanguard developed by Sledgehammer. The World War 2 setting had “lower premium sales” versus the release before that, 2020’s Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Similarly, engagement for Call of Duty: Warzone declined over the quarter as well.
While the future of the Call of Duty franchise has been put into question following the news Xbox plans to acquire Activision Blizzard, reports state that for now, at least, Call of Duty will remain an annual, multiplatform franchise.
Check out IGN’s review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare here for our impressions of Infinity Ward’s last Call of Duty title.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.