From Activision launching Call of Duty: Warzone, Modern Warfare free to play becoming the best-selling Call of Duty of all time, for the launch of the Cold War, 2020 has shaped itself to be a great year for the franchise.
As we move forward in 2021, we wanted to share our expectations and speculations about what will come from the world of Call of Duty.
We are waiting for the new Call of Duty 2021 game, new seasons of content for Black Ops Cold War & Warzone, new content for Call of Duty: Mobile and potential Modern Warfare content to come.
Let’s look at what we expect in 2021 from the world of Call of Duty.
Speculation: Call of Duty 2021
Well, of course, we all know that there is a new Call of Duty game coming in the fall. But the speculation and mystery surrounding the title is which studio is developing it.
Call of Duty was in a well-defined 3-year development cycle, starting in 2014 with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Sledgehammer Games was added to the rotation alongside Infinity Ward and Treyarch to give teams an extra year to launch their latest Call of Duty title.
That cycle, of course, ended in 2020, when Sledgehammer Games’ was no longer the lead in the title (as revealed in May 2019), and Activision put Treyarch in charge. Treyarch launched Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War in November 2020 with a development cycle of less than 2 years with Raven Software as a co-developer.
That leaves the big question: which team is in the 2021 Call of Duty game?
Sledgehammer Games has been rebuilding his studio extensively for the past four years in the shadows. The team lost most of its employees in 2018, when Activision removed studio co-founders Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey.
SHG revealed on Twitter that it hired more than 150 new people in 2020 alone, and the team is working on several projects. They were credited as a support studio for Modern Warfare, Warzone and Black Ops Cold War. But now, it’s hard to ask: are they ready for the spotlight again? Is this team ready, with a full premium Call of Duty experience, for 2021? This could certainly be the case. What could their game be: Advanced Warfare 2? Related to the Vietnam War? Future game?
The other potential possibility is that Infinity Ward will make the 2021 Call of Duty in a reduced two-year development cycle, but that seems a little less plausible because the team worked hard in the post-launch season of Call of Duty: Warzone and Modern Warfare, alongside Raven. It seems more likely that Infinity Ward will take 3 years to complete, but we may have a surprise.
Confirmed: New Cold War Black Ops content
There will definitely be new content for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War coming throughout 2021, with new seasons with new Battle Passes and more. Treyarch has been announcing the post-launch season as the ‘biggest year of Black Ops so far.’
New seasons will come with new Battle Passes, new maps and MP modes, new Gunfight experiences, new weapons and more for players to try out. There are also the new zombie maps that fans have been waiting for. All content will be free, except for the paid layers of the Battle Pass and Store packages.
Zombie fans have new map experiences to look forward to, with the Dark Aether story continuing. One of the things that is unclear is how many new zombie maps will be released in 2021. In previous years, the Season Pass (or Black Ops Pass) gave fans the number of post-launch zombie maps they could expect: 4. 4 will be the standard even with free zombie maps? This remains to be seen.
Confirmed: New war zone content
Call of Duty: Warzone has continued to be incredibly successful for Activision with over 80 million players since its launch in March 2020.
2021 will see more content for Warzone, with its integration with Black Ops Cold War. New seasons will bring new Battle Pass and cosmetic content for Warzone players.
There will be updated weapon rotation and balance as Raven Software seeks to balance Modern Warfare and Black Ops together in this world.
In addition to the usual expected content, there are also rumors suggesting that a new big map for the war zone may be coming. In June of this year, YouTuber TheXclusiveAce posted a video highlighting some areas of the war zone map that he obtained from a source. This map, which is supposed to be made in Russia (or in the mountains in that region), has not yet been officially confirmed.
There is no deadline for the debut of this new map, but there are hopes of a possible launch in the first half of the year.
Confirmed: New Call of Duty: Mobile content
Call of Duty: Mobile is also another pillar of success, and now established, in the Call of Duty world for Activision.
The mobile game has had over 300 million downloads since its launch in October 2019, and recently launched in China, which will significantly expand Activision’s Call of Duty audience.
We can expect more Call of Duty: Mobile Seasons as the year goes on. The Call of Duty: Mobile development team has been releasing new seasons of content almost monthly, with new Battle Passes, MP maps and more in tow.
There is also the possibility of expanded support for esports for Call of Duty: Mobile. The game hosted the first championship events, online, in 2020 in partnership with SONY. Call of Duty: Cellular e-sports are expanding in regions like India.
As always, check back to CharlieIntel for the latest Call of Duty: Mobile news and follow our COD Mobile Twitter Account for updates.
Speculation: New content of modern warfare
Will there be new Modern Warfare and new content in 2021? Well, this is a little bit in the air.
We hope to see new Modern Warfare content throughout the year as the game still has an established fan base. Players are enjoying the mechanics and engine of Modern Warfare and continue to do so. Many fans were upset recently about the game turning into a big ad for Black Ops Cold War, and asked Infinity Ward to bring more content.
Although there are no official announcements yet, an Infinity Ward developer on Twitter stated in late November that there is new content ready for the title, but he is not sure when it will be released.
In addition, recent data mining of game files has suggested new content for Modern Warfare. Data miners have found new Store packages for the game, including a Soap Operator Pack, as well as another new “Sparks” Operator.
Data mining in the past has also identified a variety of unreleased MP maps, Gunfight maps and more, but it is unclear whether the studio plans to officially launch them.
Speculation: Call of Duty: Warzone on Mobile
Our last speculation for a possible launch in 2021: Activision expanding Call of Duty with more mobile titles. With the incredible success of Call of Duty: Mobile in 2020, we wouldn’t be surprised to see more Activision mobile titles.
One of the mobile titles that may be possible is the launch of Warzone on Mobile. A list of Activision jobs in 2020 revealed that they are hiring a team to create Warzone resources and more in a mobile experience. The list stated that they were looking for someone to “collect, adapt and deliver the essential features of the Warzone console and PC in your best mobile instantiation.“
The job list was removed and later replaced by the list with a new title “Mobile FPS”. The company has several job listings open to mobile device developers, so it remains to be seen whether Warzone (or another potential Call of Duty experience) for mobile devices will be ready in 2021.
So there it is. That’s all we hope to launch from the Call of Duty franchise in 2021. As always, stay tuned to CharlieIntel.com for the latest news as it unfolds throughout the year.