Microsoft is considering a non-annualized, standalone Call of Duty Zombies/DMZ game, according to a new rumor.
Call of Duty insider and enthusiast TheGhostOfHope took to Twitter/X to share that, as per their sources, the delay in the launch of the next-gen Xbox has “hurt” several marketing plans for Call of Duty, as Microsoft intended to release this year’s unannounced Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 as a launch title for the upcoming console and draw a lot of hype to compete against GTA VI for player engagement.
According to the insider, as a result of this delay, the idea of two Call Of Duty future games launching alongside the next-gen Xbox has been floated, where one would be a traditional Call of Duty title with campaign and multiplayer modes and the other would be a standalone game focused on Zombies/DMZ that would presumably be developed by Treyarch. The insider likened it to the situation with the simultaneous release of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered.
Furthermore, the insider mentioned that Microsoft wants Activision to be more agile and less attached to annualized releases in the future. The alleged consensus at the company is that a more quick and coherent product/development pipeline would have allowed Call of Duty to cash in on the extraction shooter hype sooner, for example with a DMZ update.
As for Modern Warfare 4, the same insider previously claimed that the game will not be released for PS4 and Xbox One. They also claimed that it will feature a traditional UI similar to the one seen in older entries, even more so than Black Ops 6. They further mentioned that the Infinity Ward engine is being overhauled to address problems seen in Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, such as “visual clutter.” Read about it here.
