Modern Warfare 3 is listed as a Series X/S game In the Xbox Store, with no mention of the Xbox One. Is this finally the CoD that dumps old-gen and focuses purely on new gen?
Call of Duty has always tried to support as many platforms as possible. This is a massive and mainstream franchise, after all. But at a certain point in each console generation they stop releasing CoD games for the old-gen and focus exclusively on the current-gen.
If we look back historically, they only used to support the old-gen consoles for a year once the newer consoles were released, but this overlap period has been extended over the years. When the 360 came out (2005), they only released one more Call of Duty on both the 360 and the OG Xbox, CoD 3. But when the Xbox One was released (2013) they continued supporting the 360 for two more games, AW and BO3.
So when the Xbox Series X/S was released (2020), we expected them to extend the cross-gen support period even further to three years. Now the three years are up (BOCW, Vanguard, MWII) and many fans are predicting that the upcoming game (Modern Warfare 3) will be a next-gen exclusive. Are they correct? If the Xbox Store is anything to go by, yes.
Xbox Store Lists Modern Warfare 3 As An Xbox Series X/S Game
Modern Warfare 3 (the game coming on November 10 of this year, not the 2011 classic) is now appearing on a few store pages, and in the Xbox Store the game is only listed as an Xbox Series X/S game.
This was first noticed by CoD influencer TheGhostOfHope:
You guys seeing what I'm seeing? pic.twitter.com/Inw9NvNONo
— Hope (@TheGhostOfHope) August 10, 2023
We don't have official platform details yet, so this might just be a mistake. Or, as some Twitter users pointed out, the Xbox Store might be using two different SKUs - one for the Xbox Series X/S version of the game, and one for the Xbox One version of the game. We simply can't tell you for certain yet, as there's been so little official info on Modern Warfare III.
It would make sense for Call of Duty to abandon cross-gen now that we're entering the fourth year post-Xbox Series X/S release. But at the same time, the newer consoles had a worse release than they might otherwise have had thanks to Covid.
So, it's also reasonable to think Activision might want to go one more year before switching to PS5/Xbox Series X/S only. We will keep you updated as soon as we have some official platform details for MW3.
Are you hoping it is cross-gen? Or do you think the games are being "held back" by cross-gen support?
Hopefully we don't have to deal with these jokers in MW3: