NBA athletes already saw Call of Duty 2023
A few NBA athletes already had the chance to see Call of Duty 2023, which currently doesn’t have an official name yet, at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, according to some posts on Instagram spotted by CharlieINTEL. The annual upcoming Call of Duty entry being shown off to stars from the NBA or NFL isn’t anything new at this point – as is the fact that images from these demo sessions inevitably make their way into the public. That’s probably all part of the marketing plans drawn up by Activision at this point.
Ishmail Wainright from the Phoenix Suns and former Memphis Grizzlies player Kennedy Chandler were two of the athletes posting pictures of the demo event on their channels. NBA photographer Cassy Athena was present as well and wrote in her image’s caption: “Stopped by to check out the new game preview.”
Unlike the leaks in earlier years, though, which at least allowed a much more detailed look at the game’s menus, there is hardly any insight to be gained from this round of pictures. It’s been suggested that the athletes couldn’t actually play the new game yet and were only shown demo footage. Instead, the PS5 consoles at the venue enabled them to play regular old Warzone 2, which would explain why the in-game lobbies visible on the images look identical to what players are already familiar with – all jokes about Activision just copy-pasting the same game every year aside. It’s unclear what exactly the players were able to get their hands on.
Call of Duty 2023 is reportedly being developed by Sledgehammer with Infinity Ward supervising everything. This structure would make a lot of sense, since the game was likely supposed to be a massive content update for Modern Warfare 2 initially, which grew into a standalone title. There will likely still be compatibility between the two games as well as Warzone 2 and the supervision by Infinity Ward would ensure that the whole package fits together neatly.
