Sledgehammer Games continued to constantly expand its studio throughout 2020, despite the pandemic.
In May, the studio announced a major recruitment effort to bring many new developers, in all areas, to its studio.
The studio’s director of operations announced on Twitter that his effort has brought 150 new people to the studio in the past few months.
In a video on Twitter, the studio shared some stories and a look at these new people that the team will be closing throughout the year.
In addition to having already hired 150 new people this year alone, the studio’s website still has more than 65 vacancies listed.
In addition to their recruiting effort, Sledgehammer confirmed earlier this year that they are working on ‘multiple projects’, presumably within the Call of Duty franchise.
We are now a multi-project studio and are looking for a significant number of new members to join us. We are analyzing all disciplines and various levels of seniority. It is a very exciting time for our studio.
What some of these projects are is still unclear. Sledgehammer Games 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 leading developer of Call of Duty, starting the three-year development cycle in 2014 with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. In 2017, the studio launched its second main project: Call of Duty: WWII. After the launch of World War II, the studio collapsed. The co-founders and the leader, 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 intervened with Raven to create Black Ops Cold War.
What Sledgehammer Games is working on, in terms of its own projects, has not yet been revealed publicly. Whether they will become a leading developer again is also unclear.
Looking at 2021, there is still no clear indication as to which development team is leading the Call of Duty 2021 project. The three-year development cycle was suspended in 2020 with Treyarch intervening to save the 2020 title. 2021 could be Infinity Ward or see the return of Sledgehammer Games.