Activision and Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and its battle royale component Warzone continue to evolve. Modern Warfare Season 5 will have PlayStation-exclusive content, new weapons, maps, and more starting tomorrow, but fans of the long-running franchise are waiting to hear more about the upcoming Call of Duty 2020. Based on recent comments by Activision, those fans may not have to wait much longer.
The company released its second-quarter 2020 financial report today, and during a conference call discussing its contents said the next Call of Duty will be developed by Treyarch, known for the Black Ops series; together with Raven Software, partially responsible for Warzone. Both studios took to Twitter around 2:00 p.m. PT to comment on this partnership and express excitement about revealing more details on "this year's" Call of Duty.
It was also reported during the call that Call of Duty 2020 will be tightly integrated with Warzone, and Activision executives feel the free-to-play battle royale has, "Caused us to rethink how, when, and even where we reveal our upcoming titles." Official news about the upcoming game has been sparse, leading to fans relying heavily on leaks and rumors such as a Call of Duty title and logo reveal in a Doritos promotion.
In today's financial report, Activision says Warzone has reached over 75 million players and octupled yearly playtime in Modern Warfare's universe. Warzone's successful launch, "Against a backdrop of demand tailwinds from shelter-at-home" due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, contributed to a stronger quarter than expected — which has also been seen through recent financial reports by companies like Take-Two Interactive.
While there is no indication as to when more news about Call of Duty 2020 will be announced, Activision says it should have something "fairly soon." The aforementioned Doritos promotion suggested Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will be the next game coming out around October, and given the success of Activision's other offerings it makes sense to put extra effort into evolving Warzone to match future games.
However, until the developers are ready to offer up more information, Call of Duty fans will have to keep busy through Modern Warfare and Warzone's next content release. Modern Warfare Season 5 is available to preload on PS4, so it will only be a matter of time before the whole package is ready to go.
Call of Duty 2020 is currently in development by Treyarch and Raven Software.
Sources: Activision Financial Report, Activision Conference Call