Sledgehammer’s Call of Duty 2014 Will Be Next-Gen First Focused Game

Sledgehammer’s Call of Duty 2014 Developed Specifically For PS4 and Xbox One

Febryuary 10th, 2014, by Maya Mayfield

Activision's CEO Eric Hirshberg has confirmed in an interview that Sledgehammer's upcoming Call of Duty 2014 game is being built initially for the next-generation consoles. The announcement came after Activision's earnings call last week during which Hirshberg revealed that Sledgehammer was the third Studio to join the Call of Duty development teams to make the popular series.

During the interview with IGN, Eric Hirshberg said, "Sledgehammer is taking on this project as a next-generation-first development."  He then went on to say, "obviously during the console transition period, developers who made cross-generational titles last year had to take into consideration the technology of the new generation consoles which were still affecting a number of development process along the way. Now that the new hardware is available, this is our primary focus of development."

The details of how Activision and the three development studios intend to take advantage of the new consoles are still sketchy, but Hirshberg did say the decision to bring in Sledgehammer and move Treyarch and Infinity Ward to a three year development cycle is to give each studio time to polish their individual games, including time to add DLC contents.

“On the 2 year release cycle, with the increase of content we were putting into the games, it became very difficult to get everything we needed done in time. With next-generation systems," said Eric Hirshberg, “we have much more to work with and we wanted our developers to have the time to create fresh innovate games each and every time."

Players should expect to see a different Call of Duty with Sledgehammer games, to that of Treyarch and Infinity Ward said Hirshberg. “We give each creative teams a lot of independence and from seeing what Sledgehammer did helping Infinity Ward with Modern Warfare 3, we sent a message to Sledgehammer games saying, you know what makes this game amazing. Now go and do it your way.

Activision's CEO didn't share further details on what Sledgehammers COD is going to be like only saying, "when the game is finally revealed, you will  understand what I’m talking about.”

Eric did finally reassure fans of PS3 and Xbox 360 that the latest Call of Duty 2014 game will still be amazing on the last generation systems, recognizing that 2014 is still a continuation of last years gaming console transition, but ultimately Call of Duty 2014 will be a next-gen focused title, with version of that being released on last generation consoles.

What do you think of Eric Hirshbergs statements? Does  it give you fresh hopes for the COD franchise especially with the inclusion of Sledgehammer games in the mix?   Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Source: IGN