Summary
While not officially confirmed, it is strongly rumored that this year will see the release ofCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, spearheaded by Sledgehammer Games. WithMW2only having released towards the end of last year, it is quite uncharacteristic for the sub-franchise to get successive titles two years in a row.
The way information has been revealed aboutCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3is also quite unique, with early reports for the release wildly conflicting in terms of what experience the game will provide. It seems that the release has been pushed through the pipeline and expanded to offer a trilogy-capping experience forModern Warfare, potentially leading to a rushed final product that could give the launch ofCold Wara run for its money.
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Black Ops Cold War’s Buggy Launch
2020’sBlack Ops Cold Warwas seriously marred by its launch, which suffereed from a variety of common problems that players were consistently running into. These problems were spread across a range of the game’s modes, with its campaign cutscenes being unwatchable due to framerate issues, and multiplayer lobbies often disbanding or causing game crashes.
Treyarch would go on to steady theCold Warship in the months following its launch through patches, but the legacy of the title’s release lingers to this day.Cold Warcontributed to discourse about games across the industry being rushed for release, while also highlighting issues withCall of Duty’s annual release formula. While this formula has historically been sustainable, some feel that the growing scale and expectations of modern releases makes annual installments toCoDextremely difficult.
Cold Warstands close to the top of the buggiestCall of Dutyreleases of all time, and the franchise will of course want to move as far away from this as possible. With that being said, the rumored development process behindModern Warfare 3may be at risk of repeating these same mistakes.
Modern Warfare 3’s Scale and Development
It was long thought that 2023 would boldly not feature a mainlineCoDrelease, breaking a near 20-year tradition for the IP. These early reports later changed to claim 2023 would get a large-scale expansion forModern Warfare 2, before changing once more to indicate thatthe 2023 release will beModern Warfare 3instead. This uncertainty is quite uncharacteristic forCall of Dutydevelopment rumors.
Current reports indicate thatModern Warfare 3will feature a full campaign, multiplayer, andeven a new iteration ofCold War’s Outbreak Zombies mode. This is an impressive scale of content for the title, but Sledgehammer Games is already facing huge amounts of pressure in taking the helm of aModern Warfaretitle as it is.
The range of content thatMW3is rumored to involve puts the release at risk of being unpolished or barebones at launch. One of the other main shortcomings of recentCoDgames likeCold Waris the small multiplayer map rotations that they possess, which is one potential pitfall ofMW3’s expansive scale. With the title being set to release only one year after its predecessor, it is equally likely that the final product could be rushed, potentially cropping up the same kind of launch glitches thatCold Warfaced in 2020. The premise ofModern Warfare 3is undoubtedly exciting, but its scale and the recency ofMW2could see it sadly replicate the glitches and lack of content withinCold War’s launch.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3is reportedly in development.
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