An established insider has claimed that Call of Duty has yet to assign a main developer to Call of Duty 2025. Following the news, some fans expressed their worries that this could lead to Call of Duty's 2025 title seeing a rocky launch similar to 2023's Modern Warfare 3 release.

In November of last year, Bloomberg reported that Activision rushed Modern Warfare 3's development and only gave Sledgehammer Games 16 months to complete the game. This seemed to be made evident by the game's lackluster singleplayer and its Multiplayer that leaned heavily on maps from Modern Warfare 2 (2009). However, the claim was later denied by a Sledgehammer studio head, who said that the studio spent years developing Modern Warfare 3. Despite the executive's claims, it seems that Call of Duty might be using a similar approach with one of its future titles.

Respected insider Tom Henderson reported that Call of Duty 2025 is still without a main developer as its release date inches closer, which is currently 20 months away. He claimed that the game was initially meant to be headed by Sledgehammer, but after the studio was made to develop Modern Warfare 3, which many considered as more of a "year two" of Modern Warfare 2 (2023) than its own standalone game, the studio apparently refused to be assigned a similar role for Call of Duty 2025, which may be a similar "year two" title of Treyarch's Call of Duty 2024. Henderson further explained that High Moon Studios was in the running to take over Call of Duty 2025 at one point, but believes that Treyarch will likely be given the responsibility. If High Moon Studios were given Call of Duty 2025, that would make it the fourth-ever studio to lead development for a mainline Call of Duty game.

Call of Duty 2025 Reportedly Still Without a Main Developer

As mentioned in this article, currently, Call of Duty 2025 (20 months from release) does not have an assigned main developer. It's my understanding that it was meant to be SHG, but following on from the 16-month development cycle of MW3, they basically refused and didn't want to…

— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) February 5, 2024

Was originally meant to be developed by Sledgehammer, but the studio apparently refused
Sledgehammer didn't want to become a "year two support studio"
Call of Duty 2025 is about 20 months from release and will be preceded by Treyarch's Call of Duty 2024

Call of Duty 2025 still being without a developer 20 months from release is nearing Sledgehammer's alleged 16-month development cycle for Modern Warfare 3, if those claims were true. If these recent claims are true, which are made by a separate insider, it seems increasingly realistic that Modern Warfare 3's development cycle may have only been 16 months long after all.

Fortunately, it seems that this trend is not occurring with most Call of Duty entries, as Treyarch's Call of Duty 2024 is reportedly the longest the studio has ever spent developing a new game. Additionally, Henderson previously reported that Call of Duty 2026 has already been assigned to Infinity Ward and that Call of Duty 2027 has been assigned to Sledgehammer.

Virtually nothing is known about Call of Duty 2025's premise. However, as Call of Duty 2024 gets closer, new details have begun to leak out about this year's title. Recently, a dataminer claimed to reveal Call of Duty 2024's launch lineup of weapons. The game is heavily rumored to be called Call of Duty: Black Ops Gulf War and will take place in the early 1990s.

Posted: Feb 10, 2024 11:18 pm
Related Forum: Call of Duty Forum

Source: https://gamerant.com/call-of-duty-2025-no-main-developer-rumor/