‘Call of Duty’ Annual Releases Likely to Shift to New Schedule After Microsoft Acquisition

"Call of Duty" annual releases are likely to shift and follow a new schedule in the near future. It comes after the recent massive Microsoft acquisition of the developer and publisher of the game, Activision Blizzard.

'Call of Duty' Annual Releases Shift

As per a news story by IGN, the yearly release schedule of "Call of Duty" games is reportedly shying away to a much longer phasing in the next few years.

In fact, it turns out that some of the devs of the Activision Blizzard shooter game are already discussing whether to completely ditch the annual release schedule.

IGN noted in the same report that "Call of Duty" currently sees a new release every single year as Activision rotates the franchise to various gaming studios.

However, according to the report by Bloomberg, the sales of "Call of Duty Vanguard" have already seen sales decline by up to 36 percent, at least in the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, the shooter game still got a spot on the top sales chart of 2021.

That said, the devs of the game are reportedly considering slowing down the release pace of the massive gaming franchise to curb its steady decline in sales.

It is worth noting that the constant releases of "Call of Duty: Vanguard" have previously been told to be experiencing a "Call of Duty Fatigue," which means that the annual release tends to underperform due to its frequency.

'Call of Duty' Release New Schedule

As per the report by Dexerto, the shift of "Call of Duty" to a new release schedule is not possibly happening next year or the year after it.

Instead, Bloomberg said in the same news story that the massive gaming franchise is looking forward to "redeem the franchise's fortunes" in 2022.

That said, fans of the shooter gaming title should expect "Call of Duty" to still follow its yearly game release this year up until the next two years.

'Call of Duty' and Microsoft, Activision Acquisition

Meanwhile, the sought-after shooter series is now confirmed to stay on PlayStation, despite the fact that Activision Blizzard is now under Microsoft, which also owns Xbox gaming consoles, a close rival of the Sony PS5.

The Xbox boss, Phil Spencer, himself said that the "Call of Duty" franchise will remain available on the consoles of Sony.

However, the Xbox head did not disclose the specific "COD" gaming titles staying on the PlayStation. So for now, it could likely be free-to-play "Warzone," or it could also be either "Black Ops Cold War" or "Vanguard."

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Written by Teejay Boris