Microsoft could encourage Activision to abandon annual releases for Call of Duty
, by Thibaut
Update on February 24, 2026, at 12:26 a.m.
In a brief message posted on X, the official Call of Duty account denied the existence of a standalone Zombies game.
Original article
For 20 years now, the Call of Duty franchise has enjoyed annual releases. This model has often been criticized by gamers and seems to have had an impact on the quality of some installments. Microsoft may be planning to remedy this.
According to TheGhostOfHope on X, the American manufacturer would like Activision to "be more agile and less attached to annualized releases in the future". The goal would be to achieve greater consistency in development in order to better capture current market trends. For example, Call of Duty was late to jump on the bandwagon of extraction shooters, which have become very popular.
In addition, TheGhostOfHope claims that the delay of the next-generation Xbox has "hurt" the franchise's marketing plans. Activision initially wanted to make Modern Warfare 4 a launch title for the console.
The American publisher could therefore opt to release two titles with the next Xbox. There would be a classic multiplayer Call of Duty and a standalone “Zombies” title, possibly developed by Treyarch. This information should be taken with a grain of salt.