In addition to that, another interest tidbit that the report has revealed is that Modern Warfare 3 was apparently not even the game Sledgehammer itself wanted to work on. As per the report, after development was wrapped up on 2021’s Call of Duty: Vanguard, the studio pitched a title codenamed Anvil to parent company Activision, which was supposed to be set in the same universe as and serve as a follow-up to 2014’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

Apparently, some amount of work was put into the project, though before it could get too far in development, it had to be shelved, with Activision informing Sledgehammer that it would instead be working on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time that Sledgehammer Games has attempted to get a sequel to the fan-favourite 2014 title off the ground. In 2017, it was reported that before development began on Call of Duty: WW2, the studio’s first choice was to work on an Advanced Warfare sequel. Whether or not we will actually get to see Sledgehammer returning to that setting at some point in the future remains to be seen, but the studio will certainly be hoping that things are different from here on out, under the new ownership of Microsoft.

Yesterday, we covered a report from insider RalphsValve that claimed that Sledgehammer Games has started working on a direct sequel to 2014’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, moving away from the period settings of its last two entries and returning to a near-future sci-fi setting.

Now, however, prominent Call of Duty outlet CharlieIntel has disputed that. Taking recently to Twitter, they said that, contrary to the aforementioned rumours, they have heard that Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare 2 isn’t in development at Sledgehammer Games after all, and that at this time, there’s no clarity on what exactly the studio’s next project is going to be.

Sledgehammer Games has previously said that it wants to develop at least two sequels to 2021’s Call of Duty: Vanguard. The World War 2 shooter’s critical and commercial performance fell below Activision’s expectations, however, so it’s unclear at this point whether the publisher will want to return to that setting and that same set of characters.

Meanwhile, October 28 will see the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which is reportedly set to receive map packs featuring classics from older entries as paid DLC in 2023. Read more on that through here.

I have heard that there is no Advanced Warfare 2 currently in development at Sledgehammer Games, despite the rumors today.

Not fully clear yet what Sledgehammer Games is working on.

— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) October 5, 2022

Of course, that would mean that Sledgehammer Games will be next in line after that. As per leaks, the studio has started working on 2025’s Call of Duty game, and now, a new report published by prominent Call of Duty insider RalphsValve on Whatifgaming may have spilled the beans on what that game will be.

As per the report, Sledgehammer is working on a direct sequel to 2014’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The first in the series’ era of futuristic sci-fi games, Advanced Warfare was the first Call of Duty title to be developed entirely by Sledgehammer, formally introducing the studio into the series’ three-developer cycle. The next couple of games developed by Sledgehammer took players to World War 1 and World War 2 settings respectively, but it seems the developer is ready to take the series back into the near-future.

While Sledgehammer Games has previously talked about wanting to develop at least a couple of direct sequels to Call of Duty: Vanguard, given the shooter’s disappointing critical and commercial performance, it’s not a surprise that the developer and publisher Activision have decided to change tack. RalphsValve seems to suggest that wanting to keep things fresh and varied for Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 may also have played a role in deciding to go with the futuristic setting of Advanced Warfare.

Meanwhile, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is due out on October 28 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Sledgehammer Games’ Call of Duty: WW2 is doing very well, raking in the sales and scoring fairly well with critics (though players have more than a few complaints regarding the restrictive perk system in multiplayer, average campaign and whatnot). However, at some point, Sledgehammer Games didn’t want to focus on World War 2.

Speaking to Newsweek, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg said that the studio was initially interested in a sequel for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. That was the first Call of Duty title that Sledgehammer had ever developed and released in 2014. “Sledgehammer wanted to make Advanced Warfare 2,” said Hirshberg but didn’t provide any information on what changed. Publisher pressure, perhaps?

Hirshberg did say that there was confidence in Sledgehammer to handle World War 2 in its next game. “We knew they would become historians, that they would tackle it with authenticity, give it tremendous care, and we also knew they would capture the unspeakable scale of World War 2.”

Which again is hilarious because the campaign as a whole is pretty “meh”. But hey, it earned some $500 million in revenue for the first three days of its release so clearly Activision had the right idea.