Report: Infinity Ward co-developing Modern Warfare 3 with Sledgehammer Games, Raven Software

by Ben Gilbert on Jan 20th 2011 3:22PM

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare publisher Activision has repeatedly stated that Infinity Ward is doing fine since heads Vince Zampella and Jason West were ousted from the company early last year. A report on the LA Times' Company Town blog, however, tells a different story -- according to the piece, both Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software have been tasked with helping develop the next, still unannounced Modern Warfare title, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

"People familiar with the situation" claim that Sledgehammer is working with the remaining staff at Infinity Ward on developing the game's single-player campaign, while Singularity developer Raven Software is in charge of bringing up the multiplayer side of things. The sources also contend that, like past Call of Duty titles, MW3 is expected to ship this November. Additionally, Sledgehammer is said to have halted production on its own spinoff Call of Duty title in order to help IW out.

Update: Activision issued a comment in response to the LAT piece, stating, "There's been much specultion recently. We look forward to releasing details for the next Call of Duty in the near future."

Source: Company Town blog

Tags: activision, call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3, infinity-ward, microsoft, Modern-Warfare-2, pc, playstation, ps3, raven-software, sledgehammer-games, xbox

Reader Comments (103)

You know, I'll be honest. I was somewhat hoping for a slight break, even if just for a year, from this series. You know, maybe look at your game, see what others are doing, and try to bring the same level of innovation to the series that COD 4 brought. Although maybe with help from a different developer, there will be cause for those of us disillusioned with the series to come back. I really hope there will be

@WhiteShield I agree, Activision needs a years break from call of duty or their Hero series. That way the can really do their best and not try to rush everything in 2 years.

@WhiteShield Well, to be fair, the people working on this game haven't made a CoD ever, so it'll be from fresh minds.

@Deathmore Activision have nothing to do with Halo.

@WhiteShield I feel the same, which is why I was excited for the spinoff. It's a shame that's been put on hold to develop the next main COD. I won't buy this new one unless it's really improved, it innovates and it has a new engine. The reskinning game has gone as far as it can go.

@iTz FiNaL - He said "Hero" not Halo. As in Guitar Hero.

@WhiteShield

that's a great idea for us but I wonder how their shareholders and employees would react to them not getting a billion dollars this year.

Kotick wants MOAR DOLLARZ, he does not care about taking breaks or pushing the envelope. Sad but true.

@eat it
Yeah, I know. Activision is a company and they still have to think about their bottom line. If they can make money off of a series that is receiving growing upset over, they will do it. Unfortunately, a few years down the line the series could become incredibly stale and end up like the Medal of Honor series when COD 4 came out

@WhiteShield What other games does activison have, Spider-man.
God Forbid they make a good spider-man game -.-

@WhiteShield

But if Raven games is doing the MP, will it be as good? That remains to be seen. Hopefully so.

If anybody can bring something new to the table though for the SP, it's Sledghammer. Though I'm not entirely sure if this's what Glen Schofield intended to work on as part of his move over to Activision. Last I heard, he was excited about working on a new IP until this whole fiasco at IW occurred.

@kentuckyfried

Hopefully that means the single player will last for more then 3 - 4 hours.

@JONNNathannn glad to see someone besides me bring up the copy paste tactics they've milked dry. They keep doing this but fail to address fundamental issues with the code. Lazy!

Does the phrase "too many cooks in the kitchen" mean ANYTHING to these people?

@False To be fair IW didn't have many "chefs" left so that isn't the real problem

@context Yea now its just full of waiters running around with their hands in the air "we'll just give em Doritos!"

@Kjartan
haha that's awesome!!!

Oh boy...

I'm thinking the real reason they are doing this is to try to mix things up a bit as they realize that their brand is likely to start slipping at this point if the don't change things up.

@JasonA

Really? I think the "real reason" they are doing this is because the only employees left at Infinity Ward are Robert Bowling, two secretaries, and that creepy guy in accounting.

@copa

true. seeing as robert bowling is still there, i'm assuming he was considered to be the original creepy guy at IW. he probably didn't receive an invite to come over to respawn for this very reason. i'm sure he's elated that there's a new creepy guy in accounting, though.

@JasonA
I bet you're correct.

@copa

Goddamit! Why is the dude from Accounting always "creepy." Yeah I might have a slight staring problem, but I'm totally not a creep.

Especially after you put the lotion on.

They might as well call it "Call of Duty 2012", followed by "Call of Duty 2013", and Call of Duty 2014...

@Hank Hill

Let's not forget spin-offs:

Call of Duties
Call of More Duties
Callers of Duty
Clamor of Duty
Guitar Warrior of Called Duty

The possibilities are ENDLESS!

@Hank Hill Yeah, I can remember when that joke ended with 2011. They just keep coming!

@Hank Hill

I don't know... "Call of Duty: 2012" sounds like an end game title.

@Hank Hill
No they have to call it Call of Duty 12, Call of Duty 13, etc so they can be cool like Madden.

@CaptainProtonX What about Tony Hawk's Call Of Duty Hero. With a $500 Skatetargun controller.

Not too sure how I feel about this, I loved Singularity, but there were a lot of issues with the multiplayer. I'm sure Sledgehammer will do a good job on the singleplayer though.

@Tapejara

To be fair, Activision didn't exactly back Raven all that well. It's kind of funny that this--assigning them to pitch in on the only franchise they care about anymore--is their way of "helping" Raven after completely stifling them for the past few years.

@sauerfreak

Agreed. Singularity is the only Raven game I've played, but the single player alone makes them on of my favourite devs. I think Activision needs to start giving better funding to all of there other devs that aren't working on Call of Duty or Guitar Hero.

@Tapejara

I'd rather Raven did the SP campaign. Singularity was miles better than MW2's SP campaign was. I haven't played Wolfenstein reboot yet though.

I see this as an unfortunate development for the series; but I think it's only fair to judge after it's out. Nevertheless, it's these sort of things that have switched my cod buying habits from a pre-order midnight fervor to a wait-and-see approach.

you can say that the next game in the series

*PUTS ON SUNGLASSES*

will be a smashing good time...

@Hitman190

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaah~

@Hitman190

Who gave this man sunglasses? WHO?

Wait, a hodgepodge of studios are going to collaborate on the single-player, while a completely different studio does the multiplayer?

Why, that's exactly how Medal Of Honor was developed! Recipe for success!

@copa best comment so far.

@copa Isnt that also how Bioshock 2 was developed?

Wait, someone explain this to me, I thought Activision owned the rights to the Call of Duty franchise? How can Infinitiyward be making a game under that title?

@dudes113
Because Activision owns Infinity Ward? Only West and Zampella were let go (And a few other key members from the company left as well) but the company still belongs to Activision

@dudes113 ...

@libregkd

Oh, gotcha. For some reason I thought the entire company had left when that whole fiasco went down.

@libregkd From what I can remember around 33 which was close to a third of the company

@context

aargh ignore me....

I'm being downvoted because I was uncertain of the true story and asked for help? I'm hurt, Joystiq, I expected more from you.

@context
In reality, it seems that the heart of Infinityward left Activision. Thats a pretty hard hit on the company.

@dudes113

Downvoting happens, man. Complaining about it just leads to more downvotes.

I have had enough CoD for a lifetime, but any interest in the next one just plummeted.

@Dlord
i love all the hate this series seems to get (on the internet) yet it continues to be the most popular in gaming for how many years now? at least wait and see, nobody thought treyarch could pull it off either.

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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Report: Infinity Ward co-developing Modern Warfare 3 with Sledgehammer Games, Raven Software

Reader Comments (103)

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:25PM WhiteShield said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:34PM Deathmore said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:38PM jynxycat said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:38PM iTz FiNaL said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:52PM JONNNathannn said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 4:20PM roblarosa said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 4:24PM eat it said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 4:27PM zero2dash said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 4:32PM WhiteShield said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 4:39PM AudioAce said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 4:51PM kentuckyfried said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 7:33PM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Jan 21st 2011 11:56AM Johnny Neat said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:28PM False said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:40PM context said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:51PM Kjartan said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 7:07PM FrodoTBaggins said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:28PM Ahmedz said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:28PM JasonA said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:50PM copa said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 5:07PM Liquidfingers said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 8:38PM Nook said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 8:42PM Zoot Suit Jedi Grammar Hammer En said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:30PM Hank Hill said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:38PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:42PM Crimsic said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 4:04PM SpartacusMagnus said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 8:09PM DeadInside said

Posted: Jan 21st 2011 7:59PM RoboZombie585 said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:32PM Tapejara said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 6:19PM sauerfreak said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 6:25PM Tapejara said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 10:29PM andrewpoe said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:32PM Lone Starr said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:32PM Hitman190 said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:40PM Syesta said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:43PM bigwhiteyeti said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:33PM copa said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:42PM Deathmore said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 5:50PM Evin said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:34PM dudes113 said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:38PM libregkd said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:39PM jynxycat said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:41PM dudes113 said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:48PM context said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:50PM context said

Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:59PM dudes113 said

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Posted: Jan 20th 2011 3:35PM Dlord said

Posted: Jan 21st 2011 4:13AM sticks said

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