Microsoft’s latest string of layoffs have also hit some Call of Duty developers.
As reported by Insider Gaming, Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software have both been hit by layoffs. However, CharlieIntel also chimed in later, revealing that High Moon Studios were also affected by layoffs.
While we know that all the Call of Duty studios contribute to all the games to some degree, some titles, as well as some content, get led by some dev teams over others. Sledgehammer Games is the most high profile among the studios named here, as the studio that’s become the third pillar leading games in between Infinity Ward and Treyarch. Their latest game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, was widely derided for its lack of content.
While Activision never officially confirmed this, the consensus among players is that this content was clearly intended to be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II DLC, but converted into a full release at the last minute. This theory has been supported with multiple rumors, and because of this, many players felt that they were somewhat tricked by Activision for buying a lesser product at full price.
Raven Software is best known as a high profile QA studio, the best positioned among Activision’s many support studios. High Moon Studios, who once made a name for themselves with their Transformers Cybertron games, has been a support studio that hasn’t been making original titles for over a decade since. Both led the development of Verdansk, the map that returned to Call of Duty Warzone for the first time since launch.
These rumors come in the fallout of rumors that Halo Studios is moving towards hiring studios to contractually work on future Halo projects. Call of Duty has had a similar arrangement for a while, but if Microsoft is planning the same thing for their big franchise, that may explain why they’ve chosen to lay off employees.
Perhaps, in better circumstances, Microsoft might be inclined to let these studios go independent, or make them subsidiaries. It seems that while they don’t intend to close these studios, but they also don’t seem interested in letting them go, if Microsoft is planning to also outsource more Call of Duty development.
Fans have been clamoring for years that Activision allow Raven Software and High Moon Studios to leave the proverbial Call of Duty mines and make original games again, but now it doesn’t seem like that will be happening even under Microsoft. We wish the developers set to leave these studios the best.
