What just happened? On Tuesday, developer Infinity Ward published a teaser video revealing the launch date for the next major entry in the Call of Duty franchise: October 28, 2022. The clip also highlighted some of CoD: Modern Warfare II's key artwork and included a reference to "J-8-22" which could point to a June 8 gameplay reveal.
That's one day before Geoff Keighley is set to host Summer Game Fest live from Los Angeles.
MWII is the sequel to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the 2019 game that was a reboot of the original Modern Warfare from 2007. In its April 25 earnings report, Activision Blizzard said the 2019 reboot was the most successful Call of Duty title to date. The company added that this year's entry will be the most advanced experience in franchise history.
Shortly after the teaser dropped, CharlieIntel said leaked Vanguard files pointed to three editions for MWII: a standard edition, a cross-gen bundle and a vault edition. Data also points to support for current and last-gen consoles including PS4 and PS5 as well as Xbox One and Xbox Series, plus the PC.
As CharlieIntel correctly highlights, it wouldn't make sense for the developer to abandon last-gen consoles at this point because there are simply too many players still using them. Furthermore, current-gen systems remain tough to acquire, Simply put, the install base just isn't there yet.