Activision has revealed that they are maintaining their current plan to have all their studios make Call of Duty games under Microsoft.
Since the franchise emerged as an annualized juggernaut, on the same status as EA’s and 2K Sports’ sports video games, Activision started shifting priorities to dedicate more and more of their studios to the franchise. As recently as 2021, they dedicated all their studios to making Call of Duty.
While the Blacks Ops and Modern Warfare franchises were mainly created by Treyarch and Infinity Ward, respectively, Activision’s other studios, like Raven Software, were in support roles. Sledgehammer Games was the odd studio who rose up to be a third wheel between the two studios, making their own one-off Call of Duty titles.
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Toys for Bob was similarly shifted to be mainly support for Call of Duty after the toys-to-life bubble burst onto Activision’s Skylanders franchise. Shortly after Microsoft finished their Activision deal, Toys for Bob convinced Microsoft to allow them to leave Call of Duty and go completely independent.
Still, the remaining Activision studios, including the likes of High Moon Studios, and Beenox, are all still set to support the big three in making Call of Duty games. Like Toys for Bob, these studios were once known for making different games. But it seems they are content with maintaining the current arrangement.
Matt Cox, senior vice president and general manager of Call of Duty at Activision, explained their perspective on this in an interview with the Washington Post. As reported by Video Games Chronicle, he said this:
“When you look at Treyarch and Raven, they have a history of working together within the Black Ops franchise going all the way back to 2010.
You have this history with people you work with, and that ultimately shows when it comes to the finished product from a publishing and go-to-market standpoint.”
Now, some gamers question if these developers are being unnecessarily constrained from making new games with new ideas. But maybe that sort of thing is not entirely out of the question.
We put forward the hypothesis that if High Moon Studios, for example, wants to make a new Transformers game again, now is not a good time to pitch it, at least not yet. Even with Call of Duty’s current success, their future is not entirely secured quite yet. In this volatile environment, these studios may not be eager to risk it all for a game that flops so badly it could get them closed.
On another end, we should acknowledge that perhaps these studios don’t really mind making Call of Duty games. How often do you hear of EA Sports studios or 2K Sports studios complaining that they can’t make platformers? Many of those developers have gotten used to this franchise, and there is something genuinely rewarding about working on a game this well known and beloved by fans.
Maybe Microsoft and Activision would need to make plans if they wanted some of these studios to move away from Call of Duty and make new games. They certainly have no lack of other studios who could transition to this role if needed.
So maybe that isn’t happening next year, or even the next three years, but it isn’t out of the question, either. Microsoft and Activision are just at the start of their journey, and we really can’t predict how things will play out just yet. Outside, of course, of the certainty that Call of Duty continues to be the industry juggernaut that it is.
