Sledgehammer Games adds 150 new people to team in 2020
Sledgehammer Games has continued to steadily expand their studio throughout 2020, despite the pandemic.
Back in May, the studio announced a massive recruitment effort to bring on many new developers, in all fields, to their studio.
The studio’s Chief Operating Officer announced on Twitter that their effort brought 150 new people to the studio over the last several months.
In a video on Twitter, the studio shared some stories and a look at these new people who the team as the year wraps up.
Beyond already hiring 150 new people this year alone, the studio’s website still has over 65 job positions still listed.
In addition to their recruitment effort, Sledgehammer confirmed earlier this year that they are working on ‘multiple projects’, presumably within the Call of Duty franchise.
We’re now a multi-project studio and we’re looking for a substantial number of new team members to join us. We’re looking across every discipline and various levels of seniority. It’s a pretty exciting time for our studio.
What some of those projects are remains unclear. Sledgehammer Games has played a role, as a support studio, in the development of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Warzone, and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.
The studio was a lead developer on Call of Duty, kicking off the three year development cycle in 2014 with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. In 2017, the studio released their second main project: Call of Duty: WWII. Following WWII’s launch, the studio collapsed. Both co-founders and lead, Michael Condrey & Glen Schofield, left. And the studio lost hundreds of developers.
The team was set to work with Raven Software on the 2020 Call of Duty title, but due to the number of employees who left, Treyarch stepped in with Raven to create Black Ops Cold War.
What Sledgehammer Games is working on, in terms of their own projects, has yet to be revealed publicly. Whether they even become a lead developer again is also unclear.
Looking into 2021, there’s no clear indication yet as to which development team is leading the Call of Duty 2021 project. The three year development cycle was upended in 2020 with Treyarch stepping in to salvage the 2020 title. 2021 could be Infinity Ward or see the return of Sledgehammer Games.