Sledgehammer Games pencils in its next Call of Duty game
The CoDverse keeps on rumbling, and while we barely get time to catch our breath before a new Call of Duty game bludgeons us over the head and takes our money, it's a business model that's working for Activision Blizzard. Call of Duty continues to top the charts with yearly releases, so expect them to continue.
Like many feel something has to give with the bloated Pokemon franchise, Call of Duty needs to mix things up in the near future. Sure, we're used to yearly launches as the beloved Warzone battle royale gets a facelift to join them, but despite complaints that things are getting stale, it looks like business as usual.
Call of Duty's roadmap teased
An all-encompassing report from Insider Gaming reveals the future of the franchise and pencils in the next few years of CoD titles. According to the site, Call of Duty 2025 will be a futuristic Black Ops 2 sequel, followed by an Infinity Ward's game in 2026, and back to Sledgehammer for 2027.
All of these are alongside Treyarch's well-documented Gulf War-set Black Ops game coming later this year. Looking at the bigger picture, Treyarch is seemingly doing the heavy lifting with back-to-back games, which breaks from the standard tradition of rotating between itself, Infinity Ward, and Sledgehammer.
As for Sledgehammer, the developer is surely hoping to redeem its tattered reputation after Modern Warfare 3 was dubbed the worst Call of Duty ever by some and a glorified DLC by others. This could come at a cost, as Insider Gaming reports that Sledgehammer is relocating from its main office in California to a smaller space.
Employees are scheduled to be working from home until the end of 2024. This has caused some rumbles within Activision, especially after it insisted some QA staff had to return to the office five days a week. Sources say the Sledgehammer move is a "slap in the face" to those who had to relocate or leave due to the return-to-office mandate.
What could Sledgehammer's new Call of Duty game be?
Click to enlargeOne thing we're pretty sure Call of Duty 2027 won't be is Modern Warfare 4. Despite Sledgehammer claiming it MW3 had been in the work for a while, conflicting rumours say the dev was originally working on an Advanced Warfare sequel and was forced to whip up MW3 in a matter of months.
With Advanced Warfare 2 being an idea that repeatedly crops up, could we be heading back into the jetpack era in 2027? Elsewhere, let's not forget Sledgehammer pitched a sequel to the divisive Vanguard. It would make sense for Infinity Ward to pick up with MW4 in 2026, although there's no evidence this will be the case.
Out of all the staple CoD developers, Sledgehammer has the most varied portfolio. Unfortunately, as MW3 had a kitchen sink of developers that likely only exasperated problems, here's hoping that Sledgehammer can take a 'sledgehammer' to its critics in 2027 and deliver the Call of Duty game we know it can.
