A year without an annual Call of Duty release is unheard of.

There has been a premium Call of Duty game released every year since Call of Duty 2 back in 2005. Prior to that, the first title in the franchise was released in 2003, meaning that only 2004 went without a new entry. Since 2005, new Call of Duty releases were like clockwork. They were as regular as a yearly Madden release or you when eating a diet high in fiber.

According to an exclusive report from Bloomberg, there will be no new Call of Duty released in 2023. The article, written by Jason Schreier, cites sources that are "familiar with the plan."

The plan to push next year's release out of 2023 comes after a "recent entry in the series failed to meet expectations," which apparently led some higher-ups to "believe that they're introducing new versions too rapidly." The ongoing acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft reportedly had nothing to do with this decision.

To fill in that massive hole that players will undoubtedly be left with, Activision has a few plans in store. There will be a "steady stream of additional (post-launch) content" coming out for this year's Call of Duty release. This year's Call of Duty is likely to be a new entry in the Modern Warfare series.

There will also be a new free-to-play online game released next year. Treyarch is the studio working on the now delayed post-2022 Call of Duty title. They are also going to be helping to develop this upcoming free-to-play release, whatever it ends up being.