This year’s Call of Duty game, which is rumored to be Modern Warfare 2, is reportedly being developed by a whopping 11 studios. This comes from reputable leaker RalphsValve who is known for game leaks, particularly for Call of Duty. Modern Warfare 2 is a follow-up to 2019’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare which itself was a reboot of the Modern Warfare games that were released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
It’s not unheard of for Call of Duty games to be developed by multiple studios. Typically, that means two or three studios working on the game. So 11 studios working on a single entry into the franchise is unprecedented. RalphsValve described development on the game as being “all hands on deck.” It’s unclear if the negative reception of Call of Duty: Vanguard has anything to do with the approach that Activision is taking towards Modern Warfare 2. Vanguard was both a critical and commercial disappointment for the company. The game received mostly negative reviews and it had some of the lowest sales in the history of the franchise.
RalphsValve says the following studios are working on the next Call of Duty. Infinity Ward Austin, Infinity Ward LA, Infinity Ward Poland, Demonware, High Moon Studios, Toys for Bob, Beenox, Activision, Raven Software, Sledgehammer, and Treyarch. In the past, studios have sometimes taken individual portions of a Call of Duty game. For example, while Sledgehammer was the main developer of Vanguard, it was Treyarch that led the development of the zombie mode for the game. Obviously, 11 studios working on Modern Warfare 2 doesn’t mean that there are 11 different game modes. Multiple studios will be working together on the same aspects of the game. Though it’s possible that Infinity Ward, the main developer of the game, isn’t leading development on every mode that the game will have.
