Call of Duty 2027: New Sub-Franchise Confirmed by Activision

Activision has confirmed that 2027’s Call of Duty will not be a Modern Warfare or Black Ops sequel. Instead, it will be a brand-new sub-franchise, the first since 2021’s Vanguard, built to deliver the “tonal shift” players asked for after five straight years of established-series follow-ups. Our Modern Warfare 4 release time guide covers MW4’s October 23 unlock, and our editions breakdown lays out the $69.99 standard and $99.99 vault editions players will see when they boot it up.

Speaking to The Game Business in an interview tied to next week’s Modern Warfare 4 launch, Activision chief marketing officer Tyler Bahl said the studio heard player frustration about the cadence of Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops 6, and Black Ops 7. “It was not something that our community was looking for,” Bahl said. “They wanted something fresh, and even though there were different time settings, and ways to play the game with new features, that tonal shift is something that they were looking for.”

“We’ve already stated that a future title is going to be a new sub-franchise and we’ve already laid the groundwork,” Bahl added. “But we’re really excited about Modern Warfare 4, and that addresses some of that feedback.” The roadmap and post-launch schedule we covered for MW4 sets up alongside the multiplayer beginner’s guide and the DMZ primer we already published.

Modern Warfare 4 launches October 23 across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Switch 2. Bahl framed the game as the “epic conclusion” of the recent Modern Warfare run, with Infinity Ward positioning it as a return to a “grounded military shooter” after Black Ops 7’s commercial and critical stumble. Black Ops 7, which launched in 2025, finished 50% below its predecessor in Europe and ended 2025 as the lowest-ranked Call of Duty release in the US since 2008, per Bahl’s comments to The Game Business. Our Game Pass and PS Plus guide explains how the console and subscription picture factors into launch for players who already own the platform.

The past few years of Call of Duty releases show why this confirmation matters. After Vanguard in 2021, Activision ran two Modern Warfare sequels and two Black Ops sequels back-to-back before MW4 closed out 2026. The 2027 title, currently unnamed, would be the first Call of Duty in six years to skip an existing series.

The shift toward a clean break also lines up with Activision’s recent nostalgia push. Summer ports of Black Ops 1 and 2 to PS4 and PS5 “surprised” Activision with their sales, and Bahl said the team’s learnings from those ports are being applied to MW4 and “future games.”

Our read: This is Activision publicly naming a problem the franchise has been mired in, then tying Modern Warfare 4 to a clean exit ramp into a confirmed new sub-franchise in 2027. Players exhausted by sequel fatigue now have a date on the calendar for something genuinely different, and MW4 has to land as that “epic conclusion” with enough goodwill to fund a reset of what the series ships next.

Where would you like to see the new sub-franchise land, in a setting Activision has not touched, or somewhere familiar?

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report