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Now, onto the news. It was a busy week. The next Call of Duty has been revealed, FIFA has set out its games vision, Steam Deck had a monster price hike, plus financials for Take-Two and Ubisoft.
Let’s dive in.
Can Call of Duty recover ahead of GTA 6 launch
In Brief: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is launching on October 23, 2026 across Xbox Series X and S, PS5, PC and Nintendo Switch 2. Developed by Infinity Ward, the game will feature a campaign, multiplayer and the extraction mode DMZ. It is not coming to PS4 or Xbox One.
What You Need To Know:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 follows the commercial disappointment Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 last year. For the first time, Call of Duty was not the No.1 game in the US and was outsold by rival game Battlefield 6.
Since 2022, Activision has been releasing a big Call of Duty game followed by a direct sequel the following year. But the results have been mixed. 2022’s smash hit Modern Warfare 2 was followed by 2023’s underwhelming Modern Warfare 3. Meanwhile, 2024’s Black Ops 6 was hugely popular, whereas 2025’s Black Ops 7 was not. As a result, Activision will no-longer follow this release strategy.
According to Ampere, Call of Duty’s monthly active users dropped to 12.5 million last month, the lowest number since tracking began in 2022. The series peaked at 36 million players in November 2024.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will be the first Microsoft-owned game not to be released into Xbox Game Pass the day it comes out. The title will be released into the subscription service around a year later.
The upcoming game’s October release date means it avoids going head-to-head with Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto 6, which launches on November 19.
My Take:
Call of Duty is in trouble. Its audience has halved over the last 12 months, Black Ops 7 was a real miss and the IP is no-longer the market leader. It needs a win.
It’s early days, but the reception to Modern Warfare 4 seems strong. Developer Infinity Ward appears to be focusing on the modes that players love. And perhaps spinning it out of Game Pass will help its sales performance… we shall have to see there.
Could a Nintendo Switch 2 version provide a strong boost to COD this year? I doubt it. It will add some new players to the series, of course, and possibly act as a secondary device for some hardcore fans. But previous Call of Duty games on Wii and Wii U rarely delivered much. If you are big into your military shooters, Nintendo probably isn’t the console for you.
It’ll all come down to delivering a good, sticky shooter. And, thankfully for Activision, there’s no new Battlefield or Arc Raiders threatening to distract fans this time around.
But, of course, there is still a monster competitor that’s casting a shadow over the entire festive period this year in the form of Grand Theft Auto 6. By launching October 26, Call of Duty is getting out three weeks ahead of GTA… which is frequently cited as the latest you can release a game and not get sucked into that Rockstar black hole.
The problem is that when GTA does arrive, engagement for Call of Duty (and, indeed, all games) will likely drop significantly. But should the game bring in new audiences (and bring back lapsed players) as many expect it will, then that’s an opportunity for all games…. including Call of Duty.
Why was the Switch Deck price hike so steep?
In Brief: Valve has hiked the price of its Steam Deck by over 40%. The 512GB OLED model is now $789/€779/ £669, and the 1TB model will cost $949/€919/£779. Previously, the 512GB OLED model was $549/£479, with the 1TB model coming in at $649/£569.
What You Need To Know:
Valve said in a statement: “Steam Deck itself hasn’t changed; these new prices reflect the current state of component costs and other global logistical challenges across the industry as a whole.”
