We’re advancing into the latter half of 2023 now, which is where the next Call of Duty game will likely debut its first trailer. Speculation around the Call of Duty 2023 release date grows, but lucky athletes at the off-season NBA tournament, the NBA Summer League, are gaining early access to the game.
Fresh from the NBA Summer League, known COD reporting account ‘CharlieINTEL‘ details that “Activision is showing Call of Duty 2023 to NBA players at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas this weekend.” Athletes attending the event include Jeremy Sochan, NBA agent Deirunas Visockas, and Kennedy Chandler.
The latter posts a photo to his Instagram story, captioning the sneak peek as “vibing with Call of Duty.” It seems that the COD 2023 demo primarily focuses on the next iteration of Warzone (or at least an update to the current one), with Chandler’s screen showcasing matchmaking before dropping into the undisclosed map. It possible that this could be taste of the game’s multiplayer modes too.
Allowing high-profile figures in the sports and entertainment industry to play COD early is a standard affair at this point, but this has led to leaks getting out too.
Notably, NFL player Cameron Dicker posted an image of Modern Warfare 2’s lobby screen on social media, before quickly deleting it – as noted by ‘Modern Warzone‘ at the time. One of the biggest leaks came in the form of Philadelphia 76ers player James Harden wearing a hat bearing the branding for Call of Duty Black Ops 4 – months before it was released, or officially revealed for that matter.
It has been claimed that Call of Duty 2023 is actually Modern Warfare 3, but this is yet to be confirmed. The project reportedly spawned out of a planned premium expansion for Modern Warfare 2, which would add an array of classic maps and additional content to the recent COD game.
How it will expand on the story of MW2 will be interesting, given that the previous COD teased the arrival of Vladimir Makarov – the villain responsible for the events of the controversial No Russian mission.
Call of Duty Vanguard developer Sledgehammer Games is speculated to handle development on COD 2023, taking over from COD veterans Infinity Ward while Treyarch chips away at its next entry. If COD 2023 can improve upon MW2’s divisive post-launch content, it may emerge to be one of the best games releasing in the future.