Highlights
- The release of Call of Duty games each year is predictable, with a new entry coming in the first two weeks of November.
- Sledgehammer Games' CoD entries provided valuable variety to the franchise, despite receiving less critical acclaim.
- The new release cycle of CoD games may mean Sledgehammer Games' unique projects fall by the wayside.
At this point, a new Call of Duty game each year is entirely unsurprising. For almost two decades now, a new entry in the shooter series has been something that gamers can set a watch by. Every fall, usually in the first two weeks of November, a new CoD game comes. Usually, franchise fans will be treated to an entry from one of a few Call of Duty subseries each year, but 2023's entry will break this tradition. Last year saw the release of Modern Warfare 2, helmed by Infinity Ward, and this year will see the release of Modern Warfare 3, helmed by Sledgehammer, meaning the end of Sledgehammer's own unique CoD games could be here.
When the average gamer thinks about Call of Duty, they likely think of Modern Warfare or Black Ops, the two most prominent lines of games in the franchise. In the past, however, these games have been broken up by entries from Sledgehammer, such as Advanced Warfare, WWII, and Vanguard. While these entries are lesser known, typically sell less, and have sometimes proven controversial, they're also brief but valuable changes of pace from the iterative nature of the other long-running series within the franchise. Sledgehammer Games' CoD entries were the least predictable and offered the most variety, even if they didn't enjoy the same critical acclaim as more well-known games in the series.
Rumors Suggest That Modern Warfare 3 Is The Start of A New Release Cycle
Leaks and rumors claim that Call of Duty 2024 will be a Treyarch-developed Black Ops game focusing on the Gulf War. Call of Duty 2025 is rumored to be like Modern Warfare 3: a new campaign mode coupled with an updated version of the previous year's multiplayer mode with a remastered set of maps. If leaks are to be believed, 2025's CoD will feature remastered maps from Black Ops 2, and, like Modern Warfare 3, will be developed by Sledgehammer Games. This suggests that Call of Duty's series will work on a two-year cycle and that Sledgehammer Games will now be helming these second-year iterations of each series rather than developing unique titles.
While there is still time for these plans to change, especially when considering how controversial Modern Warfare 3's remastered maps have been, Activision relegating Sledgehammer Games to working on more iterative titles makes sense. Call of Duty: Vanguard was received relatively poorly, and previous games from Sledgehammer have failed to capture the hearts of fans in the way that Black Ops and Modern Warfare have. While it makes sense as a business move, it means that the CoD studio that has historically made the most distinctive games will no longer make unique projects.
Zombies Could Carry On Sledgehammer's Legacy
While Sledgehammer Games seemingly won't be working on unique CoD titles anymore, that doesn't mean that some of its innovations won't appear in new games. Modern Warfare 3's Zombies mode seems to draw inspiration from Sledgehammer's Exo Zombies mode in Advanced Warfare. This year's Zombies mode also notably differs from previous iterations, featuring an open world and a large player count. On top of this, Zombies mode has typically been restricted to Black Ops and has never appeared in a Modern Warfare title before. While it is sad that Sledgehammer won't be developing WWII games or other unique titles, it seems that its take on Call of Duty's other series may still take risks and introduce content that is a break from what gamers expect in Treyarch and Infinity Ward CoD titles.
While the new release cycle makes sense from a business perspective, it will be truly sad if it marks the end of Sledgehammer's WWII games or its other offshoots of the CoD franchise. Call of Duty is a notoriously predictable series, and reducing itself to just Modern Warfare and Black Ops will only make the series more predictable. In spite of this, there is the chance that Sledgehammer will make these series weirder, and having another studio working on them could help to address some of the problems with modern Call of Duty games.