Sledgehammer to develop 2021 Call of Duty game for next-gen systems

By Joseph Yaden May 5, 2021

Sledgehammer Games is leading development on 2021’s untitled Call of Duty game, as confirmed by Activision (and relayed by VGC) on a recent earnings call. This marks the first time the studio is in charge of development since 2017’s Call of Duty: World War II.

Sledgehammer took to Twitter to celebrate the announcement by saying: “We’re so excited to be leading the charge on Call of Duty this year and can’t wait to share more.” This is noteworthy, as Sledgehammer was originally leading development on 2020’s Call of Duty game, but was reportedly removed from the project due to a litany of reasons including tension with Raven Software.

Recommended Videos

We’re so excited to be leading the charge on @CallofDuty this year and can’t wait to share more. https://t.co/pMuaFybT1r

— Sledgehammer Games (@SHGames) May 4, 2021

On the recent earnings call, Daniel Alegre, president and chief operating officer at Activision, said: “In particular, we are very excited for this year’s premium Call of Duty release.” Alegre also explained that Call of Duty 2021 is being built from the ground up with next-gen systems in mind, and with an emphasis on “stunning” visuals across a campaign, multiplayer, and a cooperative mode.

This year’s Call of Duty is “designed to both integrate with and enhance the existing COD ecosystem,” Alegre said, confirming that it will once again tie to the ever-changing Call of Duty: Warzone, much like Black Ops Cold War and Modern Warfare before it. Adding to that, Activision President Rob Kostich said: “If we look ahead for Warzone later this year, there’ll be some other really fun integration with the great work that Sledgehammer Games is leading for this year’s new premium release.”

Though this hasn’t been officially confirmed, multiple reports suggest that 2021’s Call of Duty will once again be set during World War II and is repoertedly code-named Call of Duty WW2: Vanguard. If it is set during World War II, that raises questions about how it will integrate into Warzone, which is currently set during the1980s.

Topics

Tech News

Joseph Yaden is a freelance journalist who covers Nintendo, shooters, and horror games. He mostly covers game guides for…

Gaming

All Call of Duty games in order, by release date and chronologically

e3 2021 missing games call of duty

Call of Duty is one of the most successful video game franchises of all time. The original Call of Duty set a new standard for first-person shooters, the series' online multiplayer work has been a must-play for gamers for nearly two decades, and Warzone has been one of the top battle royale experiences of late.

The series has covered a lot of warfare, from World War II to futuristic fictional wars in 2187, but never in any set order. Players have been bounced around from era to era with each annual COD release and even revisited the same conflicts multiple times from different perspectives through direct sequels and remakes.

Gaming

Is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Game Pass?

A soldier crouching with his eyes blacked out.

When Microsoft announced that it was acquiring Activision, the big question on everyone's mind was what would happen with Call of Duty. Well, it took months of legal battles, but the deal finally went through and the first CoD game to release officially under Microsoft is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Xbox has held firm to its commitment to put all of its first-party titles onto Game Pass on day one for all its subscribers, but is it honoring that deal for the biggest game of the year? We know it isn't an Xbox exclusive and is still cross-platform, after all. If you have an Xbox and a subscription to Game Pass, you might not need to spend any money on Black Ops 6, but only if you meet one specific requirement.
Is Black Ops 6 on Game Pass?

The short answer is yes, Black Ops 6 is on Game Pass, but not at every tier. Prior to Black Ops 6 launching, Xbox restructured its Game Pass tiers a bit with new pricing and benefits. What you need to know is that you now need to either be a PC Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate subscriber to get access to any first-party day-one titles.

Gaming

You might want to wait a bit to play Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Steam

A player runs in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer.

It's Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launch day, which means potentially millions of players are hopping into the new single-player campaign, the updated multiplayer mode, and Zombies. While posts online about the performance of the game seem to be minimal, there have been reported issues on PC, specifically via Steam.

It's been a common story lately about players being mad at third-party launchers on Steam, and that remains the case for Black Ops 6. Call of Duty's is called Call of Duty HQ (COD HQ), and it's a hub for players to manage their game installs, whether they want to only download certain game modes or launch a specific game. It seems as if players can only switch between modes through the launcher and have to go through multiple menus to boot the game up. In the worst cases, they can't launch the game at all.