All Articles: Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Sledgehammer Games hiring for future Call of Duty title

Even though this is a “Treyarch year,” Activision is thinking long and hard about the future of the Call of Duty franchise. To that end, Sledgehammer Games has posted six job listings at Gamasutra looking for new bodies for its “Call of Duty development team.”

The developer is looking for an Animator, a Generalist Engineer, a UI Artist, a Lead Gameplay Engineer, a Senior Online Engineer, and a Lead Multiplayer Level Designer. Those last two might point to another multi-team development situation like we saw with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

So is Sledgehammer assisting with Call of Duty 9? Or is this proof that Call of Duty 10 is in development? It’s hard to say. If Activision’s history is anything to go by, preliminary work has likely already begun on a Call of Duty game that’s scheduled to be released in 2013. As for Call of Duty 9, a multi-team approach clearly worked for Modern Warfare 3, so it just makes good business sense to try it again.

But I guess we’ll find out for sure whether Sledgehammer is involved with Call of Duty 9 in exactly one week. And if they’re not, then let the Call of Duty 10 speculation begin!

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Activision will unveil Call of Duty 9 on May 1

Activision has added a new splash page to CallofDuty.com confirming that Call of Duty 9 will be unveiled on May 1. The reveal will happen during TNT’s coverage of the NBA Playoffs, probably during the 8:00 PM (Eastern Time) game. The splash page also contains a series of “classified images,” which will unlock during the days leading up to the reveal.

Speculation is running rampant that Call of Duty 9 will be revealed as Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. I’d say the image to your right more-or-less confirms it as the faintly visible character in the background matches a leaked Black Ops 2 poster discovered by MP1st.

Whether its Black Ops 2 or not, we do know that the ninth Call of Duty game will be available this November.

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Activision announces Call of Duty 9, multiple Blizzard titles for 2012

As Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launches to huge sales and nearly unanimous critical praise, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick is ready to announce the next entry in the series.

Speaking to investors today, Kotick said, “As we focus on 2012, we have a strong product pipeline which features a minimum of two highly-anticipated new titles from Blizzard Entertainment, including Diablo III, and a new Call of Duty game from Activision Publishing.”

As you can see, Kotick also confirmed that Blizzard will release several games in 2012, a rarity for them. And considering the developer’s full production plate, there are several possibilities for this second title including World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, and the free-to-play Blizzard DOTA.

I’m going to go out on a limb and “confirm” that Call of Duty 9 will be developed by Treyarch (it’s their turn as Modern Warfare 3 was an Infinity Ward game) and released in the first week of November 2012. Obviously, I’m a gambling man.

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