Rumors indicate possibility of free-to-play Call of Duty zombie game along with Warzone 2 in 2023

The Call of Duty (COD) fanbase was surprised to hear the recent announcement about the franchise moving away from its annual release cycle for the first time in nearly two decades.

Earlier in the day, a Bloomberg report stated that Activision will be shifting an unnamed COD title to 2024 from its earlier planner release period. This effectively means that Modern Warfare II (confirmed to be released in Fall 2022) will be the only mainstream COD release in two years.

However, there's also the planned release of Warzone 2 that Activision has confirmed. Based on a section from the same report, it now seems that there could be a different game altogether.

This was spotted by the Reddit community, who were quick to upload it. The main indicator comes from how Bloomberg worded the free-to-play online game on which even Treyarch is likely assisting.

Call of Duty Warzone 2 has already been confirmed, and if that is the free-to-play game in question, the report would have used Warzone 2 as the title.

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The rumored Call of Duty game in 2023 could be a free zombie game

Once the wording in the main article was noted, the Call of Duty community was rife with various speculations. There have been several suggestions, including some really bizarre ones, but an old tweet by reliable insider Tom Henderson stood out.

Earlier in 2021, Tom had tweeted about a standalone zombie project in development. Zombies have been a part of many Call of Duty games since 2010's Black Ops, but were never available to play as a standalone title.

But Tom has now made a fresh tweet hinting at the possibility of the standalone zombie project seeing fruition. It should be noted that there has been no official word on this yet. For all the speculation, it could well be the case that the wording in the Bloomberg article is an error.

However, there are more reasons to believe that the wording is correct, and Tom's tweets also indicate the same. Lore wise, it's unlikely that Modern Warfare II will have zombies, and Warzone 2 will have its own battle royale setting.

Making a standalone zombie game (or zombie-like) will not be a surprise, considering the latest trend.

The Rainbow Six franchise recently saw the release of a new standalone game Extraction, which many see as being derived from Rainbow Six Siege's limited-time Outbreak game mode. Also, there has been a flurry of games such as Back 4 Blood, Zombie Army 4, World War Z, and Killing Floor 2, indicating the potential of such games.

Is it the perfect time for Activision to fill this gap in their line-up with the release of a standalone Zombie Call of Duty game?