Much of the Call of Duty franchise has been defined by two of its core sub-franchises – Modern Warfare and Black Ops. In an interview with The Game Business, chief marketing officer of Activision, Tyler Bahl, has revealed that a brand-new Call of Duty game is currently in the works that will create an entirely new sub-franchise. While Bahl didn’t reveal any further details about which team is working on it, common consensus points to Sledgehammer Games being the most likely one.
This announcement comes in the wake of Bahl also confirming that the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 will wrap up all remaining plot threads that were started with the reboot of the sub-franchise from 2019. This might hint at the possibility of characters associated with Modern Warfare, like Captain Price, showing up in the new sub-franchise. The decision to create a new sub-franchise was also made because Activision wants to move away from relying on the legacy of Modern Warfare and Black Ops.
“I don’t want to give any spoilers, but [Modern Warfare 4] is going to be the epic conclusion of this recent series of Modern Warfare. It’s not that some characters and pieces can’t live on beyond this and be reinvented. But we’re excited by closing this chapter and launching a new one.
“Where we go with future games, we have to innovate. What we heard from the audience is they want new or better or different. The landscape is changing right under our feet. You’re seeing new games being built overnight, and you’re seeing tastes change and how people want to play.”
Speaking further on the subject of Modern Warfare, Bahl also discussed how 2023’s Modern Warfare 3 was widely criticized due to it being a “quick sequel”, coming out just a year after Modern Warfare 2. “It was not something that our community was looking for. They wanted something fresh, and even though there were different time settings and ways to play the game with new features, that tonal shift is something that they were looking for.
“So, we’ve already stated that a future title is going to be a new sub-franchise, and we’ve already laid the groundwork. But we’re really excited about Modern Warfare 4, and that addresses some of that feedback.”
As for what makes Sledgehammer Games the most likely studio to be working on this new project, Infinity Ward will have its hands full with post-launch support for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. Treyarch and Raven Software, on the other hand, developed last year’s Black Ops 7, which means that the teams might still need more time to work on whatever their new project might end up being.
In the meantime, the last Call of Duty game with Sledgehammer Games as the lead developer was 2023’s Modern Warfare 3, and since then, the studio has been working as a support developer on the two Black Ops games that followed it up. This has given the team plenty of time to at least wrap up pre-production work on the new sub-franchise, with development having likely already begun.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2. For more details, here are 15 important things to know about its campaign.
