When Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey left Visceral Games to form Activision’s Sledgehammer Games, everyone was left wondering just what the heck the studio’s first project would be. If you guessed Call of Duty, you win absolutely nothing … but you are correct.
Activision was in a talkative mood today, and revealed its current plans for the massively popular franchise. First up, there’s the Sledgehammer announcement: the studio is working on an all-new Call of Duty game set in the “action-adventure” genre, and it is to be released in 2011.
Of course, Infinity Ward is still hard at work on Modern Warfare 2‘s first two add-on packs that are planned for this year. And what of Treyarch? Why yes, Treyarch is doing its thing, too: expect a new installment of Call of Duty from them sometime this fall.
Seeing as how the series is about as action-packed as you can get, I’m extremely curious to see what Sledgehammer’s take will be like. Three different studios working on a single franchise? Yep, that’s our Activision! Hit the jump for an update on the Infinity Ward management situation.
The following notice was included in the press release sent by Activision (emphasis added):
The Call of Duty business unit will be led by Philip Earl, who currently runs Activision Publishing’s Asia Pacific region and previously served in senior executive positions with Procter & Gamble and Nestle. Activision Publishing veterans Steve Pearce, chief technology officer and Steve Ackrich, head of production, will lead Infinity Ward on an interim basis. Jason West and Vince Zampella are no longer with Infinity Ward.