According to a report by Kotaku’s Jason Schreier, Activision is changing up its formula for developer rotation for their massively successful FPS series Call of Duty this year. Apparently, publisher Activision has informed studios Raven and Sledgehammer who were developing next year’s Call of Duty that they will no longer lead the development and instead, Treyarch, who made last year’s Call of Duty Black Ops 4 will take charge of a new Black Ops game while the two studios will assist in the development.
This means that whatever work Raven and Sledgehammer have done in their WIP game will be transformed into a campaign for Black Ops 5, which will also be set during the Cold War similar to the original project. While this means good news for the fans upset over the lack of a single player campaign in BO4, it also implies that Treyarch will have a very short window to make the new Black Ops, thanks to the lack of developer rotation and that obviously leads to crunch. This has not gone down well with the developers over at Treyarch.
This is the first time in 7 years that Activision has changed its three-studio rotation for the series. In the words of Jason,
“One primary reason behind this Call of Duty upheaval, according to two people familiar with happenings at Activision, is the tension between Sledgehammer and Raven, whose staff are said to have argued frequently during the past year of development on Call of Duty 2020. Two people familiar with the project described it as a mess.”