The reboot of Modern Warfare back in 2019 was met with a great deal of praise, due to the game running on a highly updated engine and offering a solid campaign. Last year’s Modern Warfare II saw a drop in its critical reception for various reasons. Though it was previously announced that there would be no new COD game this year – instead being replaced by an expansion – this is no longer the case, with Call of Duty Modern Warfare III set to be officially announced later this year.

As reported by Tom Henderson of Insider Gaming, this year’s Call of Duty will be a standalone release, dubbed Call of Duty Modern Warfare III and will function as its own separate game from last year's MWII – despite what previous rumours claimed.

According to Insider Gaming, this upcoming release is being developed by Sledgehammer Games and will include a full campaign; multiplayer; Zombies and a new Battle Royale Map for Warzone 2.0.

Henderson also offered full details on the game’s key pre-launch dates, namely:

1. Beta weekend 1 (PS4/PS5): October 6, 2023 – October 10, 2023
2. Beta weekend 2 (PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X|S/PC): October 12, 2023 – October 16, 2023
3. Campaign Early Access (PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X|S/PC): November 2, 2023
4. Full Release (PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X|S/PC): November 10, 2023
5. Season 1 Launch / New Warzone Map: December 5, 2023

Activision’s insistence on having a new Call of Duty every single year has not panned out well in the past, with many games launching to a less-than-stellar reception. This has been especially true for Sledgehammer’s Games – though in fairness the studio is seemingly constantly having their plans changed by upper management, and so it is not surprising to see that their games sometimes come out half-baked. Despite the evidence pointing otherwise, hopefully this isn’t the case.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Sledgehammer Games? What about the Modern Warfare series? Should Call of Duty have taken a year off? Let us know down below.

Become a Patron!