Call of Duty is no longer an annual franchise, Activision confirms

Activision has told employees that Call of Duty has moved away from an annualized franchise towards a live service business model.

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As part of today's announcement that all Activision QA testers will become full-time employees with benefits and $20/hour salaries, company leadership tells employees that Call of Duty is shifting towards an "always-on" structure.

The news was relayed to Bloomberg via internal correspondence with Chief Operating Officer Josh Taub telling workers that the world's most popular FPS is moving away from annual releases and towards a live model.

The report corroborates previous coverage that Call of Duty won't have a mainline game in 2023 and will instead opt for a dedicated zombies game release. By 2023, Activision is expected to have four major Call of Duty live game experiences in the market including Warzone on consoles and PC, a second Warzone exclusive to next-gen consoles that releases with Modern Warfare in 2022, Call of Duty Mobile, and Warzone mobile.

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Activision has been preparing for this paradigm shift since 2018 when it first instituted a major new four-part business model that emphasized digital content and online gaming. Call of Duty has grown significantly with the release of Warzone and Call of Duty Mobile, both of which have amassed tens of millions of players and generated billions in revenue.

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