Skip to main content

Sledgehammer Games still has a Call of Duty action-adventure game lined up

call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Call of Duty franchise came to a pivotal crossroads last year when Activision fired both the president and the CEO of the studio that created the series, Infinity Ward. The move had a number of repercussions, some of which are still playing out in court, but the one that promises to have the biggest impact on gamers is the decision to have Sledgehammer Games lend IW a hand with the development of this year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. This turned out to be a shift in focus for the newcomer, which was said to be working on a very different kind of CoD game.

“Right now Sledgehammer’s 100% focused on Modern Warfare 3. We haven’t announced the future slate or future plans for the studio,” Activision exec Eric Hirshberg said in an interview with IndustryGamers. “They were originally working on an extension of the Call of Duty franchise into an action/adventure genre and that’s a game I still want to play.”

“That’s a supreme, incredible group doing that. All I can say is right now they’re 100% focused on Modern Warfare 3.”

Barring any MW3-scale leaks about the formerly in development game, that’s the last we’re likely to hear on the subject for a little while. The possibilities are pretty tantalizing though. An action-adventure game set against the backdrop of Call of Duty‘s world and unique sense of style could be a monster. Or it could be a lame attempt at a cash-in. We’ll have to wait and see how Sledgehammer does with MW3 this November.

Editors' Recommendations

Adam Rosenberg
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Previously, Adam worked in the games press as a freelance writer and critic for a range of outlets, including Digital Trends…
Hogwarts Legacy beats out Call of Duty to become 2023’s bestselling game
A student waving a wand in Hogwarts Legacy.

Circana's Mat Piscatella has released video game market highlights for 2023, and WB Games' Hogwarts Legacy ended up being the bestselling game of 2023, beating out the likes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III and Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

"Hogwarts Legacy finished as 2023’s bestselling video game in the U.S. market in dollar sales. It is the first year since 2008 that a non-Call of Duty or Rockstar-developed title ranked 1st (Rock Band)," Piscatella explained on X. "Hogwarts Legacy was the bestselling game of the year on PlayStation platforms, ranked 2nd on Xbox platforms, and placed 5th on Nintendo platforms."

Read more
These Activision Blizzard games need to come to Xbox Game Pass this year
Sekiro easy mode mod FromSoftware Souls games gameplay difficulty

In October 2023, Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and by the end of the year, the latter company's CEO had departed. Now, this will be the year where we’ll see how Activision Blizzard functions when fully integrated into Microsoft. The most immediate change for those who play games will likely be Activision Blizzard titles coming to Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft’s subscription service.

Microsoft and Activision have explained that because of the tribulations the acquisition encountered, it was impossible to have Xbox Game Pass additions prepared almost immediately after the acquisition, as it did with ZeniMax Media. In the coming months, I expect we’ll finally start to see Activision Blizzard games trickle onto the service, even if we shouldn't expect it from this week's Developer_Direct. As Activision Blizzard is one of the oldest game publishers out there, having released hundreds of games, there are plenty of titles to choose from. I’ve cherry-picked the ones I want to see most.
Diablo IV

Read more
2023 set an incredibly high bar for video game sequels
A screenshot from The Story So Far in Marvel's Spider-Man 2.

It's not an overstatements to say that 2023 was one of the best years for video game sequels ever.

Simply looking at The Game Awards 2023’s Game of the Year nominations, all of which are titles from preexisting series, proves that. It’s not just that we received a lot of new video game sequels in 2023; that happens every year. No, what makes the game sequels of 2023 stand out is how many of them impressively build upon what came before. From Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 to Baldur’s Gate 3, these follow-ups all looked at their predecessor, identified the weaker aspects, and directly addressed those issues.

Read more