Call of Duty to return to a two-year development cycle
Sledgehammer Games, creators of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and WWII, have been told they will no longer be a lead developer on a future Call of Duty Game.
23rd Apr 2020 16:00
Call of Duty to return to a two-year development cycle
Sledgehammer Games, creators of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and WWII, have been told they will no longer be a lead developer on a future Call of Duty Game.
23rd Apr 2020 16:00
The Call of Duty franchise is set to undergo some serious change when it comes to the development cycle of the popular first-person shooter series. It has been reported that the franchise is to return to a two-year development cycle shared between two developers rather than the current three-year cycle shared between three developers.
Currently, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games and Treyarch all take their turns of developing a Call of Duty title every three years but the 2020 instalment of the franchise appears to mark the signs of change as Treyarch became the lead developer of the title after Activision expressed its concern regarding Sledgehammer’s development of the 2020 game.
Reliable leaker TheGamingRevolution has revealed that the franchise will be returning to a two-year development cycle with Infinity Ward and Treyarch being the studio leads for future titles while Raven Software and Sledgehammer will be supporting studio in a similar way to how they support the development of free-to-play battle royale Warzone.
Sledgehammer Games were the creators of Call of Duty: Advance Warfare and Call of Duty: WWII, however, their time as a lead developer for Call of Duty has seemingly come to a halt.
What Does This Mean for Call of Duty?
In recent Call of Duty news, we found that the next instalment of Call of Duty will be Treyarch’s Black ops reboot set for release later this year, meaning that we will now see a rotation of Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare series and Black Op’s for the foreseeable future.
In the grand scheme of things, it shouldn’t impact the franchise too much. The last Call of Duty title developed in a two-year cycle was Black Ops 2 and that turned out to be one of the best instalments in the history of the franchise.
The big talking point is Sledgehammer Games becoming a supporting studio as opposed to leading the development of a new CoD game. It is good to see the studio involved in the franchise in some capacity but it is certainly a fall from grace from the studio that introduced a fresh and innovative movement mechanic when Advanced Warfare released back in 2014.
In his April 22nd upload, TGR also reveals that the 2019 release of Modern Warfare will not be the last Modern Warfare title to be released. It is rumoured that a sequel to the Modern Warfare reboot is going to be released in 2021, which will mark it as the first game of the new two-year cycle.
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Image via Sledgehmamer Games
About The Author
Jonno Nicholson
Jonno is a freelance journalist at GGRecon, specialising in Call of Duty and its esports scene. His work can also be found on Esports Insider, Gfinity, Millenium, and a range of other esports publications.
