According to a new rumor, Sledgehammer Games could be working on a sequel to Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, with plans to release the game as the 2025 installment in the long-running Call of Duty franchise. The first project Sledgehammer Games took the lead on was 2014's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, a game that made some extremely risky changes to the established Call of Duty formula. Namely, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare abandoned the "boots on the ground" approach of previous CoD games in favor of adding exoskeletons for enhanced mobility options.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was a commercial and critical success at the time of its release, yet still proved to be a divisive entry in the franchise. There were those who did not enjoy the sci-fi elements or the exoskeletons, calling for Call of Duty to return to its roots. Instead, what happened was subsequent Call of Duty games kept with the sci-fi gameplay and took it all further, culminating in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare's 2187 setting.
Since the release of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Sledgehammer Games has made two CoD titles set during World War 2. Call of Duty: WW2 was mostly well-received by the community, but Call of Duty: Vanguard has some of the lowest review scores in series history. Now the rumor is that Sledgehammer will be going back to its own roots for its next game with a Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare sequel, according to a report by Ralph Valve, an insider who has accurately leaked Call of Duty news in the past. However, fans should still take the information with a big grain of salt until an official announcement is made.
Ralph Valve's report claims that Sledgehammer's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare 2 will launch in 2025. It also notes that this will be one year after Treyarch's next Call of Duty game. If Ralph Valve's reporting is accurate, it would corroborate previous reports about Call of Duty skipping a new release next year. Activision has denied those claims, but some industry insiders have remained persistent that 2023 will come and go with no new main series Call of Duty game.
A Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare sequel will likely be divisive, but it could be a good way for Sledgehammer to stand out and make its Call of Duty games truly distinct from the titles that the other studios are making. It will also appeal to those who enjoyed the enhanced mobility options provided by the game and bonus modes like Exo Zombies. Time will tell if these rumors are true, but it will definitely be interesting to see what happens to the Call of Duty franchise in the years ahead.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare 2 has not been officially announced.
Source: What If Gaming
