Call Of Duty From Sledgehammer Coming Q4, With "Substantial Innovation" To Warzone

Activision Blizzard is currently embroiled in a lawsuit over its corporate culture and treatment of women, and at the same time, the publisher is pressing ahead with new game releases. One of its next big ones is a new Call of Duty game from Sledgehammer Games. As part of Activision Blizzard's earnings report on Tuesday, the management confirmed that the next game is coming in the fourth quarter.

"Our teams remain hard at work on the next new premium Call of Duty release, planned for the fourth quarter," Activision said. "From a setting that our fans know and love, to an incredible amount of content in development including an extensive live ops schedule, we believe this release will be incredibly well-received. In addition to launching a great seamless experience for both current and next-gen console players, we are focused on continuing to integrate Warzone and engage our direct relationship with our player base for even deeper content integration between the premium and free experiences and substantial innovation within Warzone itself. Our teams cannot wait to unveil what they have been working on."

Later in the presentation, the studio said that Sledgehammer has "never been bigger or stronger" and confirmed that this year's release will include campaign, co-op, and multiplayer.

Sledgehammer developed 2017's Call of Duty: WWII, while the studio has also contributed to the ongoing development of Call of Duty: Warzone. The studio's new game is said to be another WWII entry that will feature a campaign, multiplayer, and co-op; it will also integrate with Warzone (which is where the game might also be revealed, at least in part).

Sledgehammer was confirmed as the developer of 2021's Call of Duty game back in May, at which time management said the game was "built for next-gen." Whether or not this means the game will be exclusive on console to PS5/Xbox Series X|S, however, remains to be seen, though it seems unlikely.

While we wait for Sledgehammer's new Call of Duty, Activision continues to update and support both Black Ops Cold War and Warzone. Just recently, Activision announced the first details on the long-awaited Season 5 update, which is slated to begin on August 12. Outside of those games, Call of Duty: Mobile, just got its own big Season 6 update that brings back Zombies.