Tuesday, January 30th 2024
Sledgehammer Games Reportedly Set to Develop 2027 "Call of Duty" Title
Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson has managed to glean information from a recent Sledgehammer Games "Town Hall" meeting—his source(s) allege that the Activision subsidiary is set for some major restructuring. Last week, Microsoft announced widespread cuts across its Xbox and Activision Blizzard departments—according to Henderson's investigations: "30% of Sledgehammer Games staff have lost their jobs." An earlier version of his report outlines a return to a "Work From Home" model for the rest of 2024, given that the studio is allegedly vacating their current space (located in Foster City, California). He suggested that this is a temporary measure: "until a new office is found near its current location. It's expected that employees will be working from home until the end of 2024."
Insider Gaming claims that it sources have leaked Activision's future plans for their highly prized Call of Duty franchise—despite layoffs and adjusted work conditions, the company's top brass are sticking with a regular release schedule: It's a move that comes at an interesting time for Sledgehammer Games, as it it was also announced during the Town Hall that the studio would be the main developer for Activision's 2027 Call of Duty title. Infinity Ward will be heading Call of Duty 2026, understood to be in the Modern Warfare universe. Call of Duty 2025 is currently planned to be a semi-futuristic Black Ops 2 sequel under the codename Saturn."
Activision's late 2023 "return-to-office mandate" for QA workers has stirred up a lot of frustration—many quality assurance staffers spent significant time and funds in efforts to relocate closer to Activision office locations. Henderson stated that this has affected: "an undisclosed number of QA employees, who have had to either relocate to facilitate the change or leave the company."
An ABK Workers Alliance spokesperson was asked to comment on Activision's contradictory policies: "The company moving the Sledgehammer team to a temporary remote working environment is an indication that they have the ability to grant remote work to the QA employees who have requested it due to disability, distance, or other factors, but are choosing not to."
Sources:
Insider Gaming, Kit Guru, Tom Henderson Tweet
Insider Gaming claims that it sources have leaked Activision's future plans for their highly prized Call of Duty franchise—despite layoffs and adjusted work conditions, the company's top brass are sticking with a regular release schedule: It's a move that comes at an interesting time for Sledgehammer Games, as it it was also announced during the Town Hall that the studio would be the main developer for Activision's 2027 Call of Duty title. Infinity Ward will be heading Call of Duty 2026, understood to be in the Modern Warfare universe. Call of Duty 2025 is currently planned to be a semi-futuristic Black Ops 2 sequel under the codename Saturn."
An ABK Workers Alliance spokesperson was asked to comment on Activision's contradictory policies: "The company moving the Sledgehammer team to a temporary remote working environment is an indication that they have the ability to grant remote work to the QA employees who have requested it due to disability, distance, or other factors, but are choosing not to."
8 Comments on Sledgehammer Games Reportedly Set to Develop 2027 "Call of Duty" Title
2.- For the love of fuck, please not sledgehammer, please, maybe IW and somebody else, but not sledgehammer.
Was this supposed to be a double post??
Had some press releases duplicate themselves twice, or more...
The game has nothing to do with ''only'' skills anymore...
Read below...(copy&paste from another source) and is the damn truth sadly
EVERYTHING YOU DO IN THIS GAME IS A GAMBLE
Everything you do in this game is just a roll of the dice. It's not a skill based FPS, it's a glorified on-rail shooter. A former developer has even come out and said it.
Your gun does a different amount of damage depending on how you're playing.
-Same with it's accuracy.
-Same with your target tracking.
-Same with spawns.
-Same with the lobbies you're put into.
-If you purchase a weapon skin, they will make the gun perform well to have you believe it was a good purchase.
-If you rage quit, you will be placed in your "favourite" maps or easier lobbies
Lots more listed in the pastebin down below!
It's all intended to maximise the amount of time you spend in the game - and how much money you spend in the item shop.
Try picking up a gun you haven't unlocked off the floor. You perform INSANELY well. When you unlock the gun, and put on the exact same attachments, it's trash.
It's called Engagement Optimized Matchmaking (EOMM). AAA gaming isn't an art form any more, it's a science of extracting your time and money. Every game is doing this now, and it's hurting the experience.
No longer are you playing a game because you enjoy it, you're playing it because the developers are using PSYCHOLOGICAL TRICKS to keep you hooked. It's f*cked.
Publicly available patents for EOMM: patents.justia.com/patent/10857468
incidentally published 4 months before MW19 released
Full list of criteria that EOMM takes into account: pastebin.com/CcDRpnQV <<<read
Research papers regarding EOMM: web.cs.ucla.edu/~yzsun/papers/WWW17Chen_EOMM
www.researchgate.net/publication/315849420_EOMM_An_Engagement_Optimized_Matchmaking_Framework
I've found myself avoiding them a lot. I don't like being somebody's playthingThey take a break for a year to 'Rebuild CoD from the ground up' , just you watch :)
And then we get the game and its a carbon copy of the dozen CoDs before it, except with new ways to give them more money.