It has just been revealed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be released worldwide on Friday, November 10th, and could prove to be the savior needed to boost console sales this Christmas.
Xbox has been experiencing a slow year in terms of sales, and even though PS5 sales have skyrocketed this year, even Sony has admitted that sales expectations were higher.
Consequently, Sony has assured its investors that Q4 of this year will be a highly successful one, with the upcoming release of the PlayStation exclusive, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, as well as several other AAA titles scheduled to hit shelves before Christmas.
As well as the hype surrounding the October 20th release of Spider-Man 2, Q4 also sees two releases every year that more often than not become far and away the best-selling games of the year across multiple platforms. Those two games are Call of Duty and FIFA.
While this year’s FIFA would be rebranded to EA Sports FC, which is believed will add new intrigue and increase sales for the already super-popular franchise, rumors were going around that for the first time since 2005, Call of Duty would be receiving no new release in 2023.
Although Activision Blizzard hinted at a Q4 premium release in the Call of Duty series this year, most people believed this to be an expansion for Modern Warfare 2. Now, with the reveal of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, scheduled to launch on November 10, fans are now more hyped than ever for this mostly unexpected release.
Activision has already dropped the gameplay reveal trailer which revealed a ton of information about the game. Social media posts from the publisher also revealed that the game has been secretly in development since the start of development on Modern Warfare 2.
The upcoming sequel won’t just be a padded expansion as some speculated, but instead, Modern Warfare 3 will feature a brand-new campaign, live seasons, post-launch updates, DLCs, and the largest ‘Zombies’ mode so far.
With Modern Warfare 2 surpassing series sales records last year with a $800 million opening weekend (the biggest in the franchise’s history) and achieving $1 billion faster than any other entry in the series, confirmation of a November release for Call of Duty MW3 has lifted the spirits of the industry as a whole.
So far, 2023 has been a rather unusual year for the gaming industry. On one end, titles like Hogwarts Legacy, Zelda, and even this month’s launch Baldur’s Gate 3, have all reported record-breaking releases.
On the other end though, many game publishers have outlined mixed financial reports so far this year, after the measurable drop off in player engagement since the Covid-19 pandemic. On the whole, the gaming market continues to face challenges such as ongoing inflation and global economic instability.
With that said, as well as Call of Duty and EA Sports FC, the abundance of other AAA titles slated for a Q4 release are also expected to greatly rejuvenate the market and regrow the industry this Christmas.
With games such as Spider-Man 2, Starfield, Assassin’s Creed, Mortal Kombat, Sonic, Super Mario Bros Wonder, Forza, Alan Wake, Cities Skylines, and several others on the way, it will be interesting to see what games with sit on top of the best-selling game charts at the end of the year. No doubt Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 will be right up there.
