Activision has expanded its Sledgehammer Games studio, one of the developers of its Call of Duty series, into Toronto.
The company made the announcement during its latest earnings report, where it confirmed that Sledgehammer is working on this year’s new, untitled Call of Duty game.
Today we’re also thrilled to announce we're expanding with a new team in Toronto, Canada to partner with our teams in Foster City, CA and Melbourne, VIC! pic.twitter.com/HDmRdDA3ul
— Sledgehammer Games (@SHGames) May 4, 2021
Activision didn’t specify where, exactly, the new studio is located in Toronto, but it has begun hiring for the location on its website.
Sledgehammer is best known for co-developing 2011’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 with Activision sister studio Infinity Ward and leading development on 2014’s Advanced Warfare and 2017’s WWII. Since then, the studio has assisted fellow Activision subsidiaries Infinity Ward, Raven and Treyarch on 2019’s Modern Warfare and last year’s Cold War.
Sledgehammer was founded in 2009 by former Visceral developers Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey (Dead Space) in Foster City, California. The developer opened a second studio in Melbourne, Australia in 2019.
Sledgehammer’s new Toronto studio joins Activision-owned Call of Duty support studios Beenox in Quebec City and Irish software company Demonware (which has an office in Vancouver).
During its latest earnings call, Activision confirmed that this year’s Sledgehammer-developed Call of Duty will release in the fourth quarter and is being built for current-gen hardware. While last year’s Cold War released on current- and last-gen consoles, this comment seems to suggest the new Call of Duty will make better use of the newer hardware.
The new Call of Duty will also have integration with the free-to-play battle royale game Call of Duty: Warzone, just like Modern Warfare and Cold War.
Image credit: Activision
