During a financial call today, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg confirmed that a new Call of Duty game will release in 2013.
Surprise, surprise, I know.
What’s interesting, however, is that during this post-earnings call, Hirshberg warned listeners that the new game may not live up to the record-breaking sales performance of Call of Duty: Black Ops II.
“We are planning for the mainline release in Q4 to be down versus 2012,” said Hirshberg, according to Gamespot.
Hirshberg attributed some of his projection to the challenges of next-generation development and sales.
“There is increased volatility this year due to the ongoing console transition, which makes predicting the future more challenging than during normal uses in the cycle,” Hirshberg said.
That said, Hirshberg still praised the brand for its “innovation,” mentioning, “we expect the new Call of Duty game in development for 2013 to raise that bar even higher.”
As with any big-name release, be it console or game, rumors surrounding the new Call of Duty game abound. One of the more popular rumors states that the next game, will be “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4,” while another says that next-generation Call of Duty games are already in development.
One of the many question marks right now is, of course, who is developing the next title? Is it Infinity Ward, the developer who, despite an ongoing lawsuit, has been disassembled and reassembled? Or is it another studio entirely? As it stands, Activision is currently working with five studios for various Call of Duty games, including Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, and Neversoft.