In context: In response to worries that the franchise might be in trouble, an industry insider has provided a minor update on how the development of this year’s Call of Duty game is going. In short: things seem to be going smoothly, but many studios are involved.
Activision hasn’t yet unveiled this year’s Call of Duty game, which Infinity Ward is helming, but all signs indicate it’s a sequel to that studio’s previous game—the 2019 Modern Warfare reboot. Multiple sources told industry insider Tom Henderson that the game had entered alpha.
Henderson says this is the earliest he’s heard of a Call of Duty game entering alpha. He doesn’t think it’s cause for concern, speaking positively of the footage he’d seen so far.
That may support Henderson’s previous rumor stating the Modern Warfare sequel is being pushed up to October instead of the usual November launch due to disappointing sales of last year’s Call of Duty Vanguard.
Last week, Twitter user @RalphsValve said 11 studios are working on this year’s Call of Duty, calling it an “all hands on deck” situation. In addition to Activision and three Infinity Ward studios, Raven Software, Toys for Bob, Demonware, High Moon Studios, Beenox, Sledgehammer, and Treyarch are all involved in the development.
Just heard that Treyarch are also helping out, “all hands are on deck”
— Ralph (@RalphsValve) January 29, 2022
One possible source of the recent conflicts between Activision and its workforce (which probably led to Microsoft acquiring the company) is how so many of them have been directed to work on Call of Duty. Toys for Bob, known for Crash 4 and the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, was a rather strange call-out for help. Raven Software employees are in the middle of unionizing in response to the laying off QA employees, while Activision’s reaction seems to be “worry about it later.”
In November, @RalphsValve leaked several details of this year’s Call of Duty. It will apparently deal with the War on Drugs, feature more realistic gore, and incorporate a morality system.