The next Call of Duty will introduce a new sub-series to the franchise

Next year's Call of Duty game will not be part of any of the franchise's existing sub-series. In an interview with The Game Business, Activision confirmed it's finally ready to create a new sub-series.

"We've already kind of stated that a future title is going to be a new sub-franchise and we've already kind of laid the groundwork there," Activision chief marketing officer Tyler Bahl said.

This year's game, Modern Warfare 4, is the final chapter in one of Call of Duty's most popular sub-franchises, which followed on from 2025's Black Ops 7, the 7th entry in the other popular Call of Duty sub-series.

Activision announced last year it's no longer going to release two back-to-back games form the Modern Warfare or Black Ops sub-series, and this presumably goes for future sub-series that get created. Bahl admitted that releasing back-to-back games in the same sub-franchise was something the community rejected.

"Yeah, I think we were pretty public about the idea of us going back-to-back with Modern Warfare 2 to Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 6 to Black Ops 7 was not something that our community was looking for," Bahl said.

"And even though there were different time settings and different ways to play the game[s] and lots of new features, that tonal shift is something that they were looking for us to [do]."

The most recent Call of Duty game in a new sub-franchise was 2021's Vanguard, which performed poorly and failed to establish a new sub-franchise within the larger brand. Incidentally, Vanguard was developed by Sledgehammer Games, which is understood to be the maker of next year's game - itself also a new sub-franchise.

2027's Call of Duty is rumoured to be set in the late 90s and early 2000s featuring a new setting with a new cast of characters. It's going to be critical to see how well the new sub-series sets itself apart from the existing duo, and whether it ends up getting a sequel.