Activision has reported its financials for the quarter ending December 31, 2013. As part of that news, the publisher has announced that it is giving Infinity Ward and Treyarch longer development cycles to work on their Call of Duty games.

Sledgehammer, which worked with Infinity Ward on Modern Warfare 3, will be taking the reins of its own Call of Duty title. The studio was founded by Michael Condrey and Glen Schofield, who previously worked with Visceral on the Dead Space series. Sledgehammer is leading this year's Call of Duty game.

During the call, Activision listed three branches of the Call of Duty franchise: Modern Warfare, Black Ops, and Ghosts. With Black Ops at Treyarch and Ghosts at Infinity Ward, it seems logical to suspect Sledgehammer's entry will be a Modern Warfare title. 

Our Take
Giving the Call of Duty teams an extended development cycle is great news for the franchise. That much time will allow additional experimentation and creativity that will help create greater distinction from year to year. Treyarch has the zombies game types. Infinity Ward has tinkered with Spec Ops and Extinction. I’m interested to see what Sledgehammer comes up with.