Call of Duty Shifts to Three-Year Cycle, Sledgehammer Developing 2014 Game

Call of Duty games will still be releasing each and every year, but another developer has been added to the fray.

This year’s Call of Duty game will be developed by Modern Warfare 3 co-developer Sledgehammer games, according to publisher Activision. That means that each new first-person project will be on a three-year development cycle, with Treyarch and Infinity Ward heading the other two games.

This news comes from Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, who went into detail about the new setup during the publisher’s fourth quarter earnings results (via VideoGamer). He noted that this change will give each Call of Duty game an additional year of development, with the goal being to produce even higher quality products.

Sledgehammer Games co-founders Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey commented on the news on the developer’s official website.

“Having the honor of developing the new, next generation of Call of Duty is a developer’s dream come true,” the post reads. “All of us here at Sledgehammer Games have a shared vision to create the best work of our lives. The next Call of Duty represents a new era for this amazing franchise, and we look forward to sharing what we have been working on.”

The first Call of Duty game developed exclusively by Sledgehammer will make its debut this November.