Call of Duty’s next release will go “back to its roots”

What you need to know about Call of Duty 2017.

This year that game will be the work of Sledgehammer Games, which with its last Call of Duty title, 2014’s Advanced Warfare, introduced faster movement and exoskeleton suits that allowed for wall-running.

The big question is what exactly “back to its roots” means, although the obvious guess is he’s being literal and means the Second World War.

Call of Duty 2017 is happening.

Earlier today, Activision held their fourth quarter earnings report, where they managed to confirm the release window for Destiny 2. Much more to come.

“Call of Duty is still the key pillar to the Activision part of the business”, said Colin Sebastian, analyst at Baird. That new game was locked down a long time ago.

Sales for Infinite Warfare were down and as a result, so was Activision’s revenue, despite the fact that Modern Warfare: Remastered was packaged with some versions of Infinite Warfare. This may ultimately mean that jet packs and boots on the ground may make its comeback.

At the same time, the video games group also unveiled a $1bn share buyback plan and a 15 per cent dividend increase to 30 cents, as well as its slate of releases for 2017. Traditionally this arrives in April or May. We should learn more in a few months.

“Unfortunately the multiplayer is a bit of a let down”, we wrote.

The decision to bring back Call of Duty back to its roots seems to be Activision’s way of responding to that. The year got more and more awkward as Battlefield 1 utterly demolished its competition and finally took Call of Duty’s throne on top of the first-person shooter genre. After all, Sledgehammer was working on a Vietnam Call of Duty spin-off called Fog of War that was set during that war that was later cancelled. Although that game still has a futuristic setting, even if it’s not as far future as Infinite Warfare.

The odds of a COD 2017 beta are very good.

The $3.6 billion was made from just in-game sales that included Call of Duty points and Overwatch Loot Boxes.

Such a move might pay off for Call of Duty and Activision, as Capcom has found success in Resident Evil 7 by once again making horror as the game’s focus. This could be the return of that game in a new form.