It's long been reported that Call of Duty's 2023 standalone offering will be some sort of continuation to 2022's Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, and it's now being claimed by Insider Gaming that the game will be a direct sequel to Infinity Ward's most recent title and that it will have a similarly confusing name, Modern Warfare 3.
Take a seat if you must, I know this must be shocking... In all seriousness, yes, the game's name may seem rather obvious, but it's actually quite noteworthy given past reports. Insider Gaming had previously stated that Sledgehammer Games, one of the three teams that cycle every year to release a Call of Duty game, was making a "premium DLC" for 2022's Modern Warfare 2, but, over time, this project expanded, and the focus was later shifted to turn it into a complete game.
Given that this project will seemingly be a glorified DLC expansion, it's rather surprising that it's going to be presented as a full-blown sequel. Sledgehammer Games released a Call of Duty game only two years ago with Vanguard, and, over the past decade, each Call of Duty team has taken at least three years to develop a new game.
However, what may be more pertinent to some is that Call of Duty is continuing the trend of giving their new games the exact same names as older games in the series. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 is a game that released in 2011, just like Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is a game that released in 2009 (and now in 2022 as well).
This trend has become more and more popular as the years go by. Star Wars Battlefront did it in 2015 and then again in 2017 with Battlefront II. The upcoming Fable is just called Fable, the upcoming Forza Motorsport is called Forza Motorsport (just like the original 2005 game), and, Call of Duty has been guilty of this since 2019 with the Modern Warfare reboots.
Whether it's the work of nostalgia or the changes a reboot suggests, it's clear this has been a successful marketing tactic, given that more and more developers keep on doing it. But it's as successful as it is confusing.
You can no longer offhandedly mention any of these games without having to say their release year. At this point, you have to wonder how far this will get. Will devs just continue rebooting and using the same names over and over again until we get three or four games per series all titled the same way? For that, we'll have to wait and see.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 is reportedly set to launch on November 10.