Call of Duty Leaker Suggests Xbox Shake-Up Could Affect Series' Future

With Microsoft potentially delaying the next-gen Xbox console, the move has reportedly been forced Call of Duty to be more flexible with its marketing plans, according to a leaker on social media. Even if Call of Duty franchise has traditionally relied on annual releases, those plans may soon change towards the rest of 2026 and beyond.

The news about Call of DutyThe future plans came amid a busy week for Microsoft and its gaming brand. On February 20, former Microsoft Gaming chief Phil Spencer announced his retirement after 37 years with the company, effective immediately. Former Xbox president Sarah Bond also left Microsoft on the same day. Following Spencer's announcement, Microsoft stated that Matt Booty was promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO). Spencer's successor as Microsoft Gaming's CEO is Asha Sharma, a former senior AI executive at Microsoft. Despite his background, Sharma condemned the use of generative AI in game development in his first public statement as CEO.

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Outgoing Xbox president Sarah Bond issues statement following departure news

Outgoing Xbox president Sarah Bond issues a formal statement following confirmation that she will be leaving Microsoft.

Call of Duty's changed plans may still benefit players

Just a few weeks after Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 and War zone launched Season 2, a leaker claimed that Activision's plans for the future of the series have taken a hit thanks to some of Microsoft's decisions. According to The Ghost of Hope on Twitter, the delayed launch of the next-gen Xbox console has “damaged” many of Call of Duty's marketing plans for the system's original launch window of 2026. The Ghost of Hope claimed via sources that the next planned Cod title, which is stated to be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4was originally slated to arrive alongside Microsoft's next game console. Activision and Microsoft had initially hoped that the simultaneous launch of Modern Warfare 4 with the new Xbox console would have rivaled Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto 6 for player attention, although that will no longer be the case.

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Although the rumor should be taken with a fine grain of salt, The Ghost of Hope said that Treyarch could launch a standalone Call of Duty: Zombies games, except Modern Warfare 4later this year. The leaker claimed that the standalone CoD: Zombies the game may receive multi-year support, but annually Call of Duty release with a campaign and multiplayer would still be in the cards. The Ghost of Hope added that Microsoft wants Activision to be “more flexible” with its game releases and less attached to the concept of annual releases. With extraction shooters that ARC Raiders and Bungie's upcoming title Marathon still prove popular, it remains to be seen how the new development pipeline will impact Call of Duty in the future.

Everything to know about the next-gen Xbox so far

As for Microsoft's rumored next-gen Xbox console, the system was initially slated to arrive in late 2026. However, the ongoing RAM and SSD shortages, which have affected the gaming and tech industry across the board, have forced Microsoft to push back its next-gen console launch altogether from 2026. The next-gen Xbox, which has no official name as of this writing, is said to be powered by a custom AMD lineup processing unit (APU) that won't be ready for launch until 2027 at the earliest. Additionally, the new Xbox console would lean further into Microsoft's plans to make Windows 11 a gaming hub for its audience, with potential compatibility for PC flagships like Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store built into the new console.

Despite the 2027 release window that has been floating around on social media, Microsoft has not committed to a hard 2027 launch for the next-gen Xbox. With the RAM crisis showing no signs of slowing down, pricing and release date information for the next-gen Xbox has been hard to pin down. Given that Microsoft's timeline is still subject to change, time will tell when the next-gen Xbox will be fully revealed and released to consumers worldwide.