Activision has finally drawn the line: the next Call of Duty will not be developed for PS4.
The official Call of Duty account shut down a recent rumour claiming the next entry — widely assumed by fans to be some form of Modern Warfare 4, though not formally named in that post — was being tested on Sony’s last-gen console. Activision’s response was direct: the next Call of Duty is not in development for PS4.
The post only mentioned PS4, but realistically, this almost certainly means Xbox One is out too. It would be very strange for Activision to drop one last-gen machine but keep the other, especially for a series this big and platform-sensitive.
Last-gen Call of Duty is probably done
This is a pretty major shift for the franchise. Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 still launched across PS4 and Xbox One last year, which frustrated some fans who wanted the series to fully move on and take better advantage of PS5 and Xbox Series X/S hardware.
That frustration makes sense. When a game still needs to run on 2013-era consoles, developers have to design around older CPUs, slower storage, and weaker memory limits. For a yearly blockbuster like Call of Duty, that can affect map scale, loading, visual ambition, AI systems, and how far the multiplayer tech can actually be pushed.
Call of Duty has always chased the biggest possible audience, so cross-gen support was never shocking. Activision built the series into a mass-market machine long before Microsoft became its parent company, and leaving millions of older console owners behind is not a small business decision.
But this console cycle is already getting old, bro. PS5 and Xbox Series X launched in November 2020, and by the time the next Call of Duty arrives — the series usually lands in the later part of the year — we’ll be close to six years into the current generation.
For comparison, the PS3 and Xbox 360 era also hung around for ages. Call of Duty support on those machines continued in some form until 2015, with Infinite Warfare in 2016 marking the first main current-gen-only entry of that period.
Why Malaysian and SEA players should care
For Malaysia and wider SEA, this matters because plenty of players here are still on PS4. Not everyone upgraded immediately, especially when PS5 pricing, stock issues, and general cost of living made “just buy new console lah” a bit unrealistic.
A lot of local players also treat Call of Duty as a social game — the kind you jump into with friends after work, between ranked sessions in other titles, or during weekend Discord nights. If the next premium Call of Duty skips PS4 and Xbox One, some squads may suddenly be split between current-gen, PC, and older hardware.
The upside? If Activision really commits to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC without last-gen limitations, the next game has a better chance to feel like a proper technical step forward instead of another safe cross-gen release. Faster loading, denser environments, smoother presentation, and more ambitious multiplayer design are all more possible when the oldest consoles are no longer setting the ceiling.
The downside is obvious: upgrading is expensive. In Malaysia, a new console or gaming PC setup is still a serious purchase, not an impulse buy. For players who mainly buy Call of Duty every year, this may be the moment where they decide whether to move to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, or just skip the next entry.
About time, but still a big cut-off
Honestly, this was overdue. The PS4 had an incredible run, but Call of Duty cannot stay tied to last-gen forever. If fans want the series to actually improve instead of feeling like it is dragging old hardware around every year, this is the painful but necessary step.
Now the pressure is on Activision. Dropping PS4 and Xbox One only matters if the next Call of Duty actually shows why those consoles had to be left behind.
Source: GamesRadar