Call Of Duty: WW2 Studio Founders Leave

The founders of Call of Duty: WWII studio Sledghammer Games have left the company to take new, executive-level positions at Activision HQ. Sledgehammer Games confirmed in a statement to GameSpot that Michael Condrey and Glen Schofield are moving on, with Sledgehammer veteran Aaron Halon named as the new studio lead. A founding member of Sledgehammer, he most recently served as Director of Product Development.

In a statement, Activision thanked Condrey and Schofield for their contributions to the Call of Duty franchise over the years. Sledgehammer, an Activision subsidiary, was founded in 2009. The studio had an idea for a third-person Call of Duty game set in the Vietnam War, but instead were brought on to co-develop Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 with Infinity Ward after a major shakeup at that studio resulted in numerous developers walking out.

Sledgehammer released Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare in 2014, before going on to enjoy its biggest success to date with the massively popular Call of Duty: WWII in 2017.

Condrey and Schofield are industry veterans. Before setting up Sledgehammer, they were part of the team at the now-shuttered Visceral Games that created Dead Space. It is not immediately clear what spurred the decision to leave Sledgehammer, but moving up the ranks to an executive-level position at Activision sounds like a nice move.

In a statement, Schofield said the new opportunity, which will involve "exploring new game ideas" for Activision, was something that he "couldn't pass up." In addition to working on video games, Schofield is an artist whose paintings have included portraits of people like Barack Obama, Lady Gaga, and Gandalf.

As for Condrey, he said in his own statement that working at Sledgehammer was the "greatest experience of [his] professional life." He added that he's excited about the "new chapter" of his career at Activision, but he did not provide any specifics or even teases for what he'll be doing in his new position.

Kotaku first reported the news.

Condrey and Schofield are leaving Sledgehammer as Call of Duty: WWII's DLC season is still going on. The first expansion, Resistance, came out at the end of January for PS4, while the three upcoming packs will be released later this year. The next Call of Duty game, meanwhile, is rumored to be Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Just recently, Activision confirmed that Treyarch will be developing Call of Duty 2018, which lends credence to the rumour.