Activision reveals next entry in long-running first-person shooter series to launch this year, not expected to be as successful as Black Ops II.

Activision today confirmed the seemingly obvious: a new Call of Duty game will launch in 2013. But that’s where the predictability ended. Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said during a post-earnings financial call today that this new game is not expected to perform as well as the record-breaking Call of Duty: Black Ops II

“The Call of Duty franchise continues to set the bar for innovation and we expect the new Call of Duty game in development for 2013 to raise that bar even higher,” Hirshberg said.

“There is increased volatility this year due to the ongoing console transition, which makes predicting the future more challenging than during normal uses in the cycle. For Call of Duty, consistent with our past practices, we are planning for the mainline release in Q4 to be down versus 2012,” he added.

This unnamed game is expected to launch in Activision’s fourth quarter, which runs October-December. New consoles from Microsoft and Sony are rumored to launch around the same time. Next-generation Call of Duty games are believed to be in development.

According to the latest rumor, this year’s Call of Duty game will be Modern Warfare 4. No developer for the project has been named, though Treyarch can likely be ruled out, as that studio shipped Black Ops II just three months ago.

Activision currently has five studios working on Call of Duty games: Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, and Neversoft Entertainment.

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