As part of Activision’s earnings report for Q4 of FY2019, the publisher talked a great deal about the success of the Call of Duty brand in both mobile free-to-play, and the premium segment for console/PC. A new premium Call of Duty game is due out this fall, as is custom. More interestingly, however, Activision did not give any hints as to which of its studios is currently working on it. Traditionally, Activision would casually say the name of the studio working on the game in earnings call. Although this is the first official confirmation of the 2020 game, it’s interesting that company executives didn’t share studio names.
“And then, of course, in Q4 of this year, a new premium Call of Duty release, which is already generating excitement in our play tests,” said Coddy Johnson, president and COO. Later in the same call, CFO Dennis Durkin, added: “We can’t wait to unveil what our teams have been working on, and we feel great about the content.” Activision also said it doesn’t expect sales of the next game to be as strong as they have been for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare in Q4, though the publisher is only “prudently assuming” that. Last year, a Kotaku report revealed that Call of Duty 2020’s development had been troubled. Initially meant to be a co-production between Sledgehammer and Raven, the two teams reportedly had many creative differences. This caused Activision to bring in Treyarch midway through 2019 in order for the game to ship on schedule in 2020. It is said to be a new Black Ops title, but not much else is know about the project at this point. Activision is normally happy to flaunt Treyarch’s name in these calls, so it’s a bit strange that it didn’t do it this time. Activision typically starts teasing a new Call of Duty game around May, so we’re likely going to find more then, if not before.
