Activision said Monday that the next Call of Duty will not be developed for PlayStation 4, shutting down a weekend claim that the series’ next entry was being playtested on the last-gen console.
The official Call of Duty account wrote, “Not sure where this one started, but it’s not true,” and added that “The next Call of Duty is not being developed for PS4.” The statement came after leaker Alaix said over the weekend that Modern Warfare 4 was currently being tested on PS4.
That denial matters because Call of Duty has been on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One for more than a decade, and the franchise is now being pushed into a new hardware cycle. The next game has not been officially revealed yet, but it is expected to be shown this summer and is likely to appear during the Xbox Games Showcase in June. It also will no longer release day and date on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, another sign that the series is changing how it reaches players.
The broader shift leaves little room for the idea that Activision would support only one last-gen system and not the other. The game is being referred to as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 in the chatter, but that title has not been confirmed publicly. If the company keeps to its usual schedule, the next reveal should settle both the platform question and the game’s identity at the same time.
For players still on PS4, the answer is now clear: the next Call of Duty is moving on. For everyone else, the bigger question is what the franchise looks like when it finally leaves the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One generation behind.