Sledgehammer Games Making Call Of Duty For 2011, Activision Confirms Infinity Ward Firings

Today Activision announced that they're creating a new business unit around their popular Call of Duty franchise. They also outlined future games for the series.

As they've previously stated, Treyarch is developing a new COD that will be released this fall. Infinity Ward is creating "the first two downloadable map packs" for MW2, due out later in the year. They also revealed that Sledgehammer Games, a studio formed by former Visceral Games heads Glen A. Schofield and Michael Condrey, is creating a COD game "that will extend the franchise into the action-adventure genre". The unnamed game is due in 2011.

In the same press release, Activision also confirmed the rumored firing of Infinity Ward bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella yesterday. Steve Pearce and Steve Ackrich from Activision Publishing will lead the company on an interim basis. It's not clear what they'll be working on after they finish those two MW2 map packs.

The dedicated Call of Duty business unit will be headed by Activison Publishing's Asia Pacific boss Philip Earl. The COD division will focus on "high-margin digital online content and further the brand as the leading action entertainment franchise in new geographies, new genres and with new digital business models." To further their goal of "new geographies," Activision is currently in discussions to bring COD to Asian markets.