Recent rumors suggesting that this year’s installment of Call of Duty is being tested on PlayStation 4 have been swiftly debunked by the Call of Duty social media team. This means that Call of Duty 2026 will not be launching on PS4, and likely not on Xbox One either.

“Not sure where this one started,” the team clarified, “but it’s not true. The next Call of Duty is not being developed for PS4.”

While the mainline Call of Duty series seems to be moving away from supporting older generation consoles, there is no mention of what will happen to the popular free-to-play title, Call of Duty: Warzone. It is possible that Warzone will continue to be supported on current platforms for a while longer.

The longevity of PS4 and Xbox One support for Call of Duty has been remarkable, considering the trend towards cross-generation support for major franchises. The first Call of Duty title for PS4, Call of Duty: Ghosts, was released in 2013 and the series continued on to last year’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, spanning thirteen years. In comparison, cross-gen support for PS3 and Xbox 360 lasted three years until Black Ops 3, while six titles were launched on both PS5 and PS4. This decision marks a significant shift towards next-gen consoles.

Activision’s move to focus on newer consoles may lead to enhanced gameplay experiences on the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Whether this transition was planned or influenced by the reception of Black Ops 7 remains unclear. It is possible that the company aims to allocate resources more efficiently to cater to the latest hardware.

In parallel, the decision to discontinue support for last-gen consoles coincides with the choice to no longer release Call of Duty titles on Game Pass on launch day. While this two-year experiment may have boosted Game Pass subscriptions, it likely impacted direct sales on Xbox and PC. The potential loss of PS4 sales may have further justified this strategic shift.

There is speculation that Call of Duty could return to a Nintendo platform for the first time since Ghosts, especially considering the success of the Switch 2 in accommodating high-budget games from other publishers. Former Xbox executive Phil Spencer hinted at this possibility while advocating for Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision.

For players still on PS4 who wish to experience the latest Call of Duty installment, upgrading to a newer console is advised.

Source: Call of Duty