I'm going to level with you, I am surprised that Call of Duty 2023 wasn't the headline reveal for Summer Game Fest. There are only three universal truths that you can count on in this life: the sun will set in the west, that everything is better with friends, and that a new Call of Duty game will launch in the Autumn. I find comfort in knowing that every November I'll be able to sit down with a first-person shooter that's pushing at the boundaries of fidelity, game feel, and performance for the genre. Call of Duty campaigns are expendable, high-velocity entertainment – and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Something I find slightly unsettling, however, is the miasma beginning to settle around this year's installment. SGF host Geoff Keighley may have unceremoniously announced that "there's a new Call of Duty coming this Fall" last night – an awkward aside before steamrolling into a trailer for Warzone Season 4 – but that this has even been a point of contention for the community highlights the turbulence that this historically annualized franchise is experiencing right now.
