Sledgehammer Games has reportedly started development of the next Call of Duty after Vanguard

According to a recent report, Sledgehammer Games has already begun the pre-production development of their next mainline Call of Duty title after last year’s Vanguard.

Aside from that, Activision is also planning to release multiple Call of Duty titles next year to cover up the lacing from the mainline entry. Published by Activision, Call of Duty is not just one of the biggest FPS franchises. It is one of the biggest video game franchises of all time.

From behind enemy lines during the Second World War to distant space centuries in the future, the franchise has taken players across different warfares and presented them with a solid multiplayer and campaign experience.

According to a recent report by well-known industry insider Tom Henderson, Sledgehammer Games has already started developing the next mainline title. It is currently in the pre-production stage.

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Activision might not be abounding the yearly release model for Call of Duty anytime soon

Following the industry-shaking acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft Xbox for almost $70 Billion, the first questions that everyone raised were regarding the publisher's biggest franchise, Call of Duty.

Considering Xbox's previous history, fans of the series were concerned if they'd make CoD an Xbox exclusive. While the deal is yet to reach compilation, Microsoft Gaming head Phil Spencer has confirmed that the franchise will remain multiplatform with a continuous presence on PlayStation.

Even since 2005, Call of Duty has remained an annualized franchise. The development has generally rotated between the original creator, Infinity Ward, who is best known for their Modern Warfare series, and Treyarch, who is known for the Black Ops series.

After assisting Infinity Ward with 2011’s Modern Warfare 3, the epic conclusion to the iconic trilogy, Sledgehammer Games, joined in as the third mainline Call of Duty studios, with the three studios settling into a three-year cycle.

Quite recently, though, that cycle was disrupted, as Treyarch took the 2020 entry with Black Ops Cold War, while Sledgehammer released Vanguard in 2021. Activision has already confirmed that Infinity Ward is developing this year’s title. It has been heavily rumored to be a sequel to 2019’s entry, Modern Warfare II.

It was also rumored that the franchise will be skipping the mainline entry for 2023, with Treyarch setting their entry for an expected release date of 2024. In his reporting, Tom Henderson collaborated with this fact, but he also reconfirmed the existence of multiple free-to-play titles such as Warzone 2 and the Zombies Project.

As for Sledgehammer’s entry, the title has reportedly just entered the pre-production state. There is barely any information regarding the title to be discussed, except for its release date, set for 2025.

Before Vanguard, Sledgehammer Games developed two CoD titles, including 2014’s Advance Warfare and 2017’s WWII. Both the titles, as well as Vanguard, received mixed receptions from fans.

In October 2021, Call of Duty Writer Sam Maggs expressed her interest in developing sequels to Vanguard, similar to that of Modern Warfare and Black Ops.

She stated:

"We came into this being like, ‘who could be our flagship CoD characters?’ because we want to make Vanguard 2 and Vanguard 3 because we have two more stories that we really want to tell with these characters."

She continued:

"So, we are hoping that if people love them as much as we do, we get to continue to tell the story of these people and make them sort of like figureheads for this era of CoD, basically."

However, considering Vanguard’s mediocre response, it’s uncertain if Sledgehammer Games will walk the path of sequels or if they will tell a new story.