Call of Duty studio Sledgehammer is working on multiple projects

Activision’s Sledgehammer Games is now working on multiple projects, it’s confirmed.

Sledgehammer was founded in 2009 and is best known for Call of Duty titles Advanced Warfare (2014) and WWII (2017).

The California-based developer has navigated a challenging period in recent years, with the departure of its founders Michael Condrey and Glen Schofield in 2018 and more recently reports that it had co-leadership of a premium Call of Duty game moved to another studio.

Both Condrey (31^st Union) and Schofield (Striking Distance) established new studios close to their old company, and dozens of Sledgehammer employees reportedly left to join them.

Speaking to VentureBeat this month, Sledgehammer’s new COO Andy Wilson, a former executive at 2K’s Hangar 13 studio, said the company had “a clear plan for the future.”

Sledgehammer now has about 200 people working in its studio in both Foster City, California, and Melbourne, Australia, Wilson said, and it plans to add 100 more developers over the next year.

On some staff leaving, the COO said: “Our industry tends to see a lot of movement in general. The gaps between projects usually coincides with a larger number of people deciding to make a change.

“That said, the story of the last year for us has been one of solid growth. We’re not looking in the past. We are excited about where we’re headed and our focus is on looking forward.”

One of Wilson’s first tasks since joining Sledgehammer was to launch an initiative called ‘Decade II’, he said, and set a roadmap for the future.

“The great thing about Decade II, Day One was that was actually the end-point of months of solid work to establish a clear plan for the future,” he explained. “The result is a team and studio with a clear roadmap and an enormous opportunity ahead of it, with a lot of great new team members signing up for the journey.”

Activision claimed last week that the next Call of Duty game – on which Sledgehammer is understood to be a support studio – is on target to hit its planned 2020 release window.

It’s also understood that the studio is working on a free-to-play Call of Duty spin-off aimed a broader audience than the recently-launched Warzone.

In another interview with VentureBeat last week, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said the company was “changing the trajectory” of Call of Duty.

“I think it started last year with the Modern Warfare launch and mobile. And I think Call of Duty: Warzone did a good job of bringing back lapsed Call of Duty players, but also introducing new players.”