Treyarch developing Call of Duty: Black Ops 5 for 2020 with Sledgehammer Games and Raven to support

A new bombshell report has surfaced from Jason Schreier of Kotaku regarding Call of Duty’s 2020 release. He has reported that current in-development Call of Duty 2020 game is in “a mess” state, and Treyarch is taking over the development to bring Call of Duty: Black Ops 5 as the 2020 Call of Duty game.

Kotaku states that Activision informed the studios this week of the major change that the company is making to its plans, as Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software were still in development of the 2020 Call of Duty game.

It’s a significant shift for Activision’s massive first-person shooter franchise, which is one of the most lucrative video game series on the planet. Every fall for the past 15 years, Activision has put out a new Call of Duty game, supported by a stable of different developers who rotated duties as required. Since 2012, Activision has followed a three-year cycle for its three lead studios: Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer. 

Kotaku reports that Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software will serve as support studios to work with Treyarch on bringing out the 2020 Call of Duty game. Raven Software was actually the lead development studio for the 2020 Call of Duty game with Sledgehammer Games supporting them.

Sledgehammer Games and Raven have been working on a single player campaign for their 2020 game set in Cold War, and that is supposed to be the campaign for the new Black Ops game.

As part of their report, Kotaku sources told them that there was tension between Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software during the development of 2020 title. The studios kept arguing over the features of the 2020 title. The game was apparently a “mess.” Activision decided to step in and put Treyarch in charge of a new Black Ops project for 2020.

This will be the first time that Treyarch is making a Call of Duty game in the 2 year development cycle since the release of Black Ops 2 back in 2012. Since then, Treyarch’s Black Ops 3 and Black Ops 4 have been created in a 3 year development cycle.

Sledgehammer Games has been having a rocky time the last year, with co-founders Michael Condrey and Glen Schofield departing the company in 2018. The new studio leadership is under Aaron Halon. It was not clear what the studio planned to make after the Call of Duty: WWII season with the co-founders departing.

Michael Condrey has reportedly been recruiting Sledgehammer Games developers to his new 2K Studio, and many developers have been leaving SHG over the past year. Developers still at Sledgehammer have been shocked by the amount of developers leaving, Kotaku reports.

Sledgehammer Games not releasing a fully fledged title for 2020 will be the first time the studio has missed three year release since 2014. Sledgehammer Games was founded in 2009 as an Activision-owned studio and started their journey as co-developers of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 back in 2011 with Infinity Ward. After that, Activision transitioned Call of Duty to a three year development cycle with Sledgehammer Games, Treyarch, and Infinity Ward as the lead developers rotating through the cycles.

Sledgehammer Games released Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare in 2014 and Call of Duty: WWII in 2017.

If this is the case, next year will see a new Call of Duty: Black Ops game — marking the fifth title in the sub-series.

Activision has not confirmed this info and did not issue a statement.

SOURCE: Kotaku