The development history of Call of Duty Modern Warfare III (2023) has been peppered with contradictions and question marks. It began in February 2022 with a credible report from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier that this year would be the first one since 2004 without a new, premium, annual mainline release in the Call of Duty franchise. That report suggested the void would be filled with DLC for Modern Warfare II (2022) and a free-to-play game from Treyarch.
The latter project was later detailed a bit more by leaker Tom Henderson as 'Project Nexus', likely to be connected to zombies. Shortly after that, though, Activision said 'premium content' was planned for 2023 and beyond. In October 2022, another prominent Call of Duty leaker said Modern Warfare II would receive both a campaign and a map pack DLC in late 2023. At this point, everyone assumed that would be the 'premium content' mentioned above by the publisher. Schreier once again fueled the rumor mill in November 2022, stating that Sledgehammer would make the paid expansion and include 'lots of content' in the DLC. At that time, he still maintained the next game, Call of Duty Modern Warfare III, would be launching in 2024.
In February 2023, however, the tune from insiders changed. Tom Henderson first reported a change of plans inside Activision. The publisher shifted those expansion plans into a full premium release inside the Modern Warfare sub-series: Call of Duty Modern Warfare III.
Henderson also revealed the full public rollout for this new game:
- Beta weekend 1 (PS4/PS5) – October 6, 2023, to October 10, 2023
- Beta weekend 2 (PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X|S/PC) – October 12 to October 16, 2023
- Campaign Early Access (PS4/PS5) – November 2, 2023
- Full Release (PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X|S/PC) – November 10, 2023
The release date was officially confirmed last week, so it's fair to assume the rest of the schedule is genuine, too. Last month, Activision also 'corroborated' earlier rumors and revealed that Operators, Weapons, and Bundles from last year's game would carry over to Call of Duty Modern Warfare III. A few days ago, we got a clarification that a few items may be missing:
A small amount of content may be unavailable if gameplay offerings are different in Modern Warfare III. For example, if MWIII doesn’t have the Tactical Amphibious Vehicle, or a specific piece of Tactical or Lethal Equipment in any game modes, any Skins you’ve unlocked for these items in MWII won’t be in MWIII. In addition, Wartracks (music) will not carry forward from MWII to MWIII.
Now there's a new Call of Duty Modern Warfare III rumor which might greatly anger fans if true. According to Twitter user el_bobberto, the launch maps for this new game are just remastered versions of Modern Warfare II (2009) maps.
This would highlight even more plainly that Modern Warfare III was just meant to be an expansion, and yet Activision is likely planning to sell it at full price now. Other Call of Duty leakers like ProReborn and TheGhostOfHope are also teasing some big and potentially negative news due to hit the franchise soon, though it is unclear whether it is related to the launch maps rumor.
Either way, there's just two days left before we start learning more official details straight from Activision. The worldwide reveal for Call of Duty Modern Warfare III is due on Thursday, August 17th.
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