Sledgehammer Games allegedly developing Call of Duty’s 2021 release

As we enter 2021, the developers for this year’s Call of Duty title remain shrouded in mystery, though a prominent leaker appears to have tipped Sledgehammer Games for the next release.

One thing is a constant when it comes to Call of Duty: we can always expect a new release towards the end of each calendar year. While it was originally Treyarch and Infinity Ward rotating on a two-year development cycle, Sledgehammer Games was added into the mix for a brief period. 

From roughly 2012 to 2017, Sledgehammer Games worked on their own titles. Both Advanced Warfare and WWII were released throughout this period. Shortly after, the studio fell back into an assisting role, aiding the development of both 2019’s Modern Warfare and 2020’s Black Ops Cold War.

We’re still a few months out from the reveal of 2021’s title. However, we could be in store for another full release helmed by Sledgehammer Games, according to a prominent leaker Tom Henderson.

https://twitter.com/_TomHenderson_/status/1345755754796621826

With a history of credible leaks in the CoD community, Henderson, formerly known as YouTuber Long Sensation, shared an image on January 3. This tweet displayed a timeline of the past two years and how all three major studios fall in place.

Infinity Ward continued with Warzone development long after its release, according to Henderson. The studio only handed things over in September 2020, giving them just 14 months of development time on a new release, assuming the next title arrives in November 2021 as expected.

“Infinity Ward isn’t working on the next title,” he followed up in a Q&A stream on the same day.

Infinity Ward

With the major success of Warzone, it appears as though Infinity Ward developed post-launch content through until September 2020.

“Warzone post-launch content ended [for Infinity Ward] in September. A lot of Infinity Ward’s resources were put into Warzone.”

Obviously, pumping out an entire new CoD in just 14 months would be an extreme turnaround. Therefore, Sledgehammer Games has supposedly been hard at work on the upcoming release since August 2019. 

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With a release date of November 12 seemingly in place, this could mean that the studio has been focused 2021’s title for two years and three months, according to Henderson.

In terms of what this title might actually be, little is known. “Advanced Warfare 2 and a WWII sequel are both plausible,” he said during the stream. Henderson also pointed towards a direct sequel to 2019’s Modern Warfare just a few months ago.

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Clearly, there is a wide range of possibilities for the next title. Anything from mobile exoskeletons to more grounded combat from the WWII era. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as the 2021 release comes into focus.