Sledgehammer Games co-founders Michael Condrey and Glen Schofield, who also served as directors for Call of Duty: WWII, have left the studio. They will be working at parent company Activision in new “executive duties”. Sledgehammer founding member Aaron Halon will be leading the studio going forward.
An Activision representative stated that, “Following the incredible success of Call of Duty: WWII, Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey have decided to transition from their duties at Sledgehammer Games to new executive duties inside Activision. We thank Glen and Michael for their tremendous body of work on Call of Duty and look forward to continuing to collaborate with them in their new roles.
“These changes have created an opportunity to elevate one of the key leaders at the studio, Aaron Halon, to lead Sledgehammer Games. Aaron is a founding member of Sledgehammer Games and the natural fit to lead the team. He has over 20 years of industry experience and has played an instrumental role throughout the studio’s history. We congratulate Aaron and are thrilled about the future of Sledgehammer Games, which we believe has even bigger days ahead.”
Kotaku said it heard news of Condrey and Schofield being shifted for a few weeks now. Sledgehammer Games has seen its share of love and hate over the past several years so it should be interesting to see where its next game goes under the leadership of Halon.
Founded in 2009 by Condrey and Schofield who previously ran Visceral Games (which has since been closed), Sledgehammer Games first worked on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 with Infinity Ward. It would go on to develop Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, which released in 2014 to mixed impressions for its multiplayer. Call of Duty: WW2 released last year and became the top selling console game in North America as per Activision.