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Activision Gives Sledgehammer Its Own Call Of Duty Game, Studios In Three Year Rotation

by Mike Futter on February 06, 2014 at 03:56 PM

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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.

You guys remember that one Game Informer article on the general term "innovation" and how it's thrown around as a mere buzzword? Seeing a lot of that here. I'm glad the author used terms like "experimentation" and "creativity rather than innovation. I wish Sledgehammer luck on Call of Duty. However Activision should have used that opportunity to flesh out a new IP rather than waste talent on one an existing one that is no doubt successful only for the sake of relevance. Destiny alone won't cut it in this new generation. That's where EA has the edge, tons of games vs Activision as of late, or so it would seems with Battlefront, Mirror's Edge, Dragon Age Inquisition, UFC, Titanfall, and Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare. Say what you will but EA has a more interesting portfolio, marred only by bad reputation of greed.

Comments

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by Cersei LR Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:04 PM

This is good news! Call of Duty definietly needs some fresh blood.
by zombierecon Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:04 PM

Good News - Development time has increased by a year for both Infinity Ward and Treyarch. Bad News - More Call of Duty! Despite my low opinion on the franchise as of late, I do find that the Good News overpowers the Bad News. I wish the members of Sledgehammer luck in their new endeavors.
by TroubleWithStairs Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:04 PM

I don't really see this as anything but great news for COD fans. An additional year of dev time could give them time to innovate and further polish their products. Everyone wins! Except non COD fans, that is. But that's okay, it's not for everyone!
by Adventure Seeker 1 Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:05 PM

thank goodness they finally got the memo. its still gonna take me a while to get back into the franchise. but good on activision for doing this.
by Zen_Shot Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:05 PM

Yawn-o-rama....
by EpicPizzaBaconWaffle Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:07 PM

This is good news because it means that each title will have a much longer development cycle to innovate and work out ways to differentiate them, but as someone who likes the Campaigns it's kind of a bummer because Ghosts ended on a huge cliffhanger. So I'm bummed out for personal reasons but overall I'm very good with this decision.
by The Man of Contradictions Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:08 PM

Yay?
by DaftLink I17 Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:11 PM

That's very good. I'm glad those studios will get more time to make a more quality CoD experience like what we used to have with CoD4 and Black Ops. They really needed to do something like this after the Ghosts letdown.
by ShamMD Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:12 PM

This is great news if you're a big COD fan. While I have nothing against the series, I simply am not interested in the recent games. Maybe with these longer development cycles they can bring something new to the table.
by Zachary Pligge Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:12 PM

I'm glad the CoD franchise gets an extra year of development for each game. Still, a CoD game every year is starting to wear me down.
by GeekasaurusWrex Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:13 PM

You guys remember that one Game Informer article on the general term "innovation" and how it's thrown around as a mere buzzword? Seeing a lot of that here. I'm glad the author used terms like "experimentation" and "creativity rather than innovation. I wish Sledgehammer luck on Call of Duty. However Activision should have used that opportunity to flesh out a new IP rather than waste talent on one an existing one that is no doubt successful only for the sake of relevance. Destiny alone won't cut it in this new generation. That's where EA has the edge, tons of games vs Activision as of late, or so it would seems with Battlefront, Mirror's Edge, Dragon Age Inquisition, UFC, Titanfall, and Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare. Say what you will but EA has a more interesting portfolio, marred only by bad reputation of greed.
by Paradigmthefallen Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:15 PM

...for all that is holy, make something distinguishably different!
by Rich Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:19 PM

This is actually pretty big news, it may be what thir series needs to feel fresh again
by Brian Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:19 PM

So does this mean that it will be even longer before we see a new game engine from Call of Duty? Being that there are now 3 developmental studios, maybe each one can do something original and create their own distinct engine for their games and stop recycling the same old kill animations. Not sure that will happen, but we can hope.
by Tim Gruver Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:19 PM

Three year rotation, huh? Someone finally got off the annual release cycle. . . I like it.
by chsmn775 Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:27 PM

Why not just give it a year break? They have fatigued this series, for me at least.
by samiamiamsam Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:31 PM

Anything less than a complete overhaul, and I am still out. This game has literally looked and played the same since COD4 Modern Warfare, seven years ago. You can't blame a company for milking a cash cow, but the franchise is ready for a change.
by hash_ninja Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:31 PM

I actually didn't mind the MP in MW3, didn't Sledgehammer co-develop that with Infinity Ward?
by Irwin Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:31 PM

I'm interested in seeing what they can do. Maybe they can give the franchise a much needed refreshment. Also good for Treyarch since they're the better CoD developer now (imo).
by Arparagus Thursday, February 06, 2014 at 04:31 PM

"People aren't buying our sixty dollar rehashes often enough! We need to have another developer slapping new visuals on MW2! That ought'a get the cashola rollin' in."