Rumors: Free-to-play Call Of Duty: Zombies Coming In 2023

The Call of Duty franchise is taking a year off in 2023 -- sort of. Multiple sources are saying that there will be no mainline entry in Activision's AAA military shooter title next year, but there will be a Call of Duty title launched that year with a different focus: zombies.

The news about the lack of a mainline release for 2023 appears to have come from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier (but there's some, uh, contentious debate regarding that point), and appears to be the result of issues with 2021's Call of Duty: Vanguard. In any case, 2022's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone sequels are still on track for release later this year.

So what's a diehard CoD fan to do in 2023? How about zombies? Yes, Activision is getting on the zombie bandwagon, which seems to have peaked around five years ago, with plans to release a standalone, free-to-play, zombie-based Call of Duty game next year, developed by Treyarch. That's the rumor coming from various sources, and it would likely be a step up from the not-well-received zombie mode that was present in Vanguard.

None of this is set in stone right now, obviously, but it might show that Activision is at least willing to adjust its tried-and-true "CoD every year" policy that it's maintained for about two decades, in the face of falling review scores and critical scorn.

Note: Activision Blizzard is still under investigation by the state of California for serious harassment charges. CEO Bobby Kotick is alleged to have known about such actions within his company – and performed some himself – and shielded the perpetrators from consequences.