It’s been a popular theory that the studios responsible for developing the Call of Duty series will drop the production to work on other projects. However, Tom Henderson’s latest article claims the contrary; It seems like Sledgehammer Studios started pre-production on a New Call of Duty game.
The outlines of the project are, to some extent, undrawn. All we might know is that the project is probably a standalone Zombies title. It is slated for release within a two-year window to cover the “gap of not releasing a premium title.” Activision Blizzard saw that releasing too many Call of Duty games frequently affects sales. This was extremely apparent in Vanguard‘s poor performance in the market.
Tom Henderson: Writer Sam Maggs has suggested in the past that the title could be a sequel to Call of Duty: Vanguard, saying at New York Comic-Con in 2021 (via VGC) “we have two more stories that we really want to tell with these characters.” Sledgehammer Games’ ambitions to make a sequel might not come to fruition though, with Call of Duty: Vanguard failing to meet Activision’s expectations.
Vanguard‘s financial failure is one of the main reasons Activision Blizzard might ditch the ambitions for a sequel. The plans for the series will certainly be affected by the Microsoft-Activision acquisition, which is expected to be finalized in 2023.
Source: Shocker: Sledgehammer Games is Developing a New Call of Duty Title