Coming just a year after Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3 makes me worry that this will be an uncomfortable year for Call of Duty.

Coming just a year after Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3 makes me worry that this will be an uncomfortable year for Call of Duty.

Modern Warfare 3 is coming in November, but what is it?

After months of rumors and regular logo leaks from the Doritos booth, Activision is finally ready to announce that this year's Call of Duty is Modern Warfare 3. It's coming out November 10th, with a more official reveal coming during the Warzone event shortly. .


Sounds like business as usual for the Activision FPS empire, except there's reason to believe that Call of Duty this year will be anything but ordinary.


First, this time around last year, there were rumors that Treyarch's next CoD was delayed by a year, and there would be no "premium" Call of Duty game in 2023. At the time, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reported that instead of a full new game, Modern Warfare 2 would receive a second year of live support. Eventually Activision said there would still be a premium CoD in 2023, although Schreier argued that CoD 2023 would be more like a "paid expansion" for Modern Warfare 2 made by Sledgehammer Games.


“It should have a lot of content! Maybe that's why it's called a "full" release. But this is more MW2,” Schreier tweeted at the time.


We now know that "more MW2" is coming in the form of Modern Warfare 3, and the timing couldn't be stranger. Last year we just got Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 reboot and now there's a triquel? It just doesn't happen: Since 2007, CoD hasn't received a sequel in just over a year, as Activision studios have been churning out their own versions of the series in 2-3 year cycles. More recently, Activision split work on a single game between multiple studios, with one studio "leading" development. So why is Sledgehammer leading the way in Modern Warfare 3 if it's always been the Infinity Ward series, and what is Modern Warfare 3?


It's a logo right now, but I expect proper disclosure by Activision to sell Modern Warfare 3 like any other CoD sequel: campaign, multiplayer, maybe some co-op and Warzone tie-ins. I think we should be prepared for Modern Warfare 3 to be more like a stopgap - it's quite possible that the newest thing in Modern Warfare 3 will be its campaign, and its multiplayer set will be reminiscent of the "MW2 second year" that Schreier referred to. reported last year. .


Depending on what you think of the Call of Duty live service era, this might sound great. A second year of MW2 could mean we won't have to start at tier 1 - it could even mean that all of its weapons, maps and cosmetic items will carry over. Modern Warfare 2 is the best CoD since Infinity Ward was last at the helm, so I wouldn't mind another year of smooth gunfire and wacky tilted laser sights.


Of course, it reads cynically that Treyarch's delay threatens to lead to the first year without a new CoD, so Activision is putting together a Call of Duty "premium" from scraps. I hope it's not, especially if Modern Warfare 3 is going to be a full $70 game.


We'll know more when Activision talks about Modern Warfare 3 soon.