The annual release schedule of Call of Duty has been an enormous factor in the longevity and continued success of the franchise, offering a constant cycle of content to players, regardless of how controversial it might be. This has historically allowed a range of major studios to constantly work on different titles that fall under the CoD name, allowing the series to explore a wide range of settings and themes over the years.
Despite the variety and creative license that this affords Call of Duty, the franchise has come under a lot of flak in recent years due to its narrow focus on a select few sub-franchises, with Black Ops and Modern Warfare in particular dominating the current landscape of CoD as a series. While this recent focus has led to varying levels of success, some recent leaks suggest that the series might finally be aiming to move away and once again broaden its horizons into other Call of Duty IPs. With Sledgehammer Games reportedly taking the helm for CoD's 2027 release, a clear and bold change could be coming to the FPS giant in the near future.
Sledgehammer Games' 2027 CoD Release Could Be the End of an Era
While the Modern Warfare and Black Ops sub-franchises are Call of Duty's most popular, Activision has made some bold moves in terms of how strongly CoD has focused on these names in recent years. The Modern Warfare series in particular has been the center of a huge amount of controversy since it was rebooted in 2019, with the initial positive reception of this bold move quickly leading to a lot of burnout in the eyes of some CoD fans.
This is best evidenced in the unprecedented move that Call of Duty carried out in 2022 and 2023, which marked the consecutive releases of Modern Warfare 2 and Modern Warfare 3. Going completely against the grain of variety that had allowed CoD to flourish in the past, these back-to-back releases for the same sub-franchise came at a big price in terms of negative community sentiment.
Modern Warfare 3 even re-used 2009's MW2 maps for its launch map pool, while boasting an infamously brief campaign that felt more like a DLC than a standalone single-player experience. The huge success of 2024's Black Ops 6 has somewhat alleviated these criticisms, although a recent range of high-profile leaks suggest that Infinity Ward will be taking the helm of 2026's CoD release to develop Modern Warfare 4.
Sledgehammer Games Might Be Breaking the Two-Year Cycle of Modern CoD Releases
The unfinished storyline for the MW reboot led many fans to believe that a fourth entry would come to the franchise, although the criticism surrounding Modern Warfare 3 did throw some doubt over such a project ever materializing. While these leaks are still not officially confirmed, the release of Modern Warfare 4 would risk a repeat of the burnout felt by MW2 and MW3, yet it has also been alleged that 2027 might finally mark an end for this era of Call of Duty.
These leaks suggest that Sledgehammer Games will develop 2027's Call of Duty title and, despite Sledgehammer's recent involvement in the MW reboot, this project will allegedly belong to a different CoD IP. Many fans are already theorizing that this project could finally be a sequel to Sledgehammer's divisive yet popular Advanced Warfare, likely featuring a return to jetpack gameplay and a futuristic setting. Of course, this would spring up debate and controversy in its own right, but these leaks indicate that 2027 could finally be the year that Call of Duty begins branching back out into different subfranchises, marking an end of the recent dominance of Modern Warfare and Black Ops.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 83 /100 Critics Rec: 91%
- Released
- October 25, 2024
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Suggestive Themes, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Developer(s)
- Treyarch, Raven Software
- Publisher(s)
- Activision
- Engine
- IW 9.0
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer, Online Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
- Yes - PlayStation, Xbox, PC
WHERE TO PLAY
Forced to go rogue. Hunted from within. This is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.
Developed by Treyarch and Raven, Black Ops 6 is a spy action thriller set in the early 90s, a period of transition and upheaval in global politics, characterized by the end of the Cold War and the rise of the United States as a single superpower. With a mind-bending narrative, and unbound by the rules of engagement, this is signature Black Ops.
The Black Ops 6 Campaign provides dynamic moment-to-moment gameplay that includes a variety of play spaces with blockbuster set pieces and action-packed moments, high-stakes heists, and cloak-and-dagger spy activity.
In a best-in-class Multiplayer experience, players will test their skills across 16 new maps at launch, including 12 core 6v6 maps and 4 Strike maps that can be played 2v2 or 6v6.
Black Ops 6 also marks the epic return of Round-Based Zombies, the fan-favorite mode where players will take down hordes of the undead in two brand-new maps at launch. Post-launch, players can look forward to even more exciting maps and groundbreaking experiences dropping into both Multiplayer and Zombies.
- Cross Save
- Yes - PlayStation, Xbox, PC
- Prequel(s)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: World at War
- Franchise
- Call of Duty
- Number of Players
- 1-4
- Split Screen Orientation
- Vertical or Horizontal
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unknown
- PC Release Date
- October 25, 2024
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- October 25, 2024
- PS5 Release Date
- October 25, 2024
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC
- Genre(s)
- FPS
- How Long To Beat
- 8 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- PS Plus Availability
- N/A
- File Size Xbox Series
- 216 GB (October 2024)
- Local Co-Op Support
- 1-2 Players
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
