2019's Call of Duty game from developer Infinity Ward is rumoured to be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. Whatever it is, the game will be announced in the coming months.
During the Activision Blizzard earnings call today, management confirmed that the game will be revealed before the end of the current fiscal quarter, which means it'll be announced before June 30. That makes sense, given new Call of Duty games are typically announced in May before getting shown off further at E3 in June. This year could be different in a way, however. Activision typically showcases the new Call of Duty game during Sony's E3 briefing due to its exclusive content deal, but that won't happen this year because Sony isn't attending E3.
On the earnings call, Activision management says it feels "incredibly good" about how the new Call of Duty title is shaping up, and they're excited to finally reveal it eventually.
Not only that, but Activision boss Coddy Johnson teased that Activision plans to support the game's release with even more content after launch to keep players engaged.
"We need to do even more to maintain the breadth of our Call of Duty player base beyond the launch quarters," he said. "The Call of Duty team is hard at work on that for this fall's big content release, excitement for which is incredibly high around the organisation. We expect that both the launch and the post launch will bring game-changing experiences to our fans."
Activision is able to create more content for this year's Call of Duty game because it's increasing development headcount across the board, including the Call of Duty team. Activision announced it was increasing aggregate headcount for its development teams by about 20 percent following its layoff of 800 people primarily from non-game development roles.
Little is known about the title, but Activision previously said the game will feature a campaign mode. That's notable because 2018's Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 did not include a campaign but instead added a battle royale mode called Blackout.
Additionally, it was confirmed that the Call of Duty series has sold more than 300 million copies since it premiered back in 2003.
Also on the call, Activision said interest in the new Call of Duty mobile game from Tencent is high; the game has more than 10 million pre-registrations on Google Play.