Why Call Of Duty Is In BIG Trouble
Sledgehammer Games Were Sadly Demoted
After working on the middling threequel Modern Warfare 3, Sledgehammer Games took the lead on their own Call of Duty title, sitting amongst the ranks of Treyarch and Infinity Ward, with the rather good Advanced Warfare. With three developers behind the series, the studios then had a three year development cycle rather than two, giving them more time to produce a higher-quality product.
With Black Ops 4 and the Modern Warfare reboot following Sledgehammer's second solo title, the massively underrated WWII, they teamed up with support studio Raven Software to produce 2020's title. However, after creative differences led to a turbulent first act of development, Activision stepped in and demoted Sledgehammer back to a support studio.
This, for lack of a better word, sucked. Advanced Warfare and WWII were two well-playing and well-received titles, and Sledgehammer missing out on the chance to create their third was a real shame. Treyarch were brought in to pick up the pieces, even though they would have already been hard at work on their own title, originally slated for 2021.
[Con't.]