Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Video games |
Founded | July 21, 2009 |
Founders | Michael Condrey Glen Schofield |
Headquarters | Foster City, California, United States |
Key people | Aaron Halon (studio head) Andy Wilson (chief operating officer) Greg Reisdorf (creative director of multiplayer) David Swenson (creative director and audio director) |
Products | Call of Duty series |
Number of employees | 450+ (August 2021) [1] |
Parent | Activision |
Subsidiaries | Sledgehammer Games Melbourne [2] Sledgehammer Games Toronto [3] Sledgehammer Games Guildford [4] |
Website | sledgehammergames |
Sledgehammer Games, Inc. is an American video game developer company formed in 2009 by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey. The pair formerly worked at Visceral Games and are responsible for the creation of Dead Space . The company is based in Foster City, California. [5] The studio has developed and co-developed various video games in the Call of Duty series.
Sledgehammer Games co-founders Schofield and Condrey worked together at Electronic Arts in 2005 on 007: From Russia with Love , with Condrey as director and Schofield executive producer. The collaboration carried forward to Dead Space. The two men had complementary skills and similar backgrounds—middle class with fathers in the construction business. [6] [7]
After founding Sledgehammer Games on July 21, 2009, Schofield and Condrey made Activision a proposal: they would attempt to replicate their success with Dead Space, with a third-person spin-off of the Call of Duty franchise. Activision sat on the proposal for weeks until Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick offered to bring the studio into the Activision fold. Schofield and Condrey accepted, viewing Activision's independent studio model as an opportunity to preserve the company's creative culture, development methodology and staff, while having the security of an alliance with the industry's largest publisher. [7] [8] [9]
Sledgehammer Games spent six to eight months working on the Call of Duty project in 2009, enough to produce a prototype with about 15 minutes of play. [10] The game would have reportedly expanded the franchise into the action-adventure genre, and a legal battle between Infinity Ward, the studio behind the Modern Warfare franchise, and co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella resulted in the pair's departure. They took several Infinity Ward employees with them to their new company, leaving Activision with about half the staff and a deadline of about 20 months (versus a typical 24 months) to complete the next game in the franchise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 . Activision requested that Sledgehammer Games stop work on the third-person shooter and collaborate with Infinity Ward instead. [7]
The offer was a gamble for both sides. Activision was calling on a studio that had not put out a game on its own, while Sledgehammer Games would be abandoning weeks of work in the genre they were most familiar with to take on a punishing schedule in a franchise. The studio first polled its staff and got unanimous approval. "It was a massive risk for Schofield and Condrey's new studio, and one that most outside of the industry never considered", wrote Ryan Fleming in Digital Trends. "The Infinity Ward name was the marquis on the Modern Warfare franchise, but failure to deliver on Activision's golden egg would have resulted in a wave that crippled those in its path. Looking back at the success of that game and franchise as a whole, it is easy to overlook the chance Sledgehammer took." [7]
The collaboration with Infinity Ward marked the first time a co-development relationship would produce a Modern Warfare title, with both companies' logos appearing on the packaging. Despite the companies’ differing histories and development methodologies, GamesTM called the arrangement "a rare symbiotic relationship for such a high-profile game". The two teams first met in the spring of 2010 to compare ideas. There was some overlap: both teams wanted to set the game in Europe and, recalled Schofield, achieve a “payoff on the story that had been told over the last four years.” [10] [11]
It was announced in February 2014 that Sledgehammer Games would be developing a Call of Duty title slated for release in 2014. On May 1, Game Informer teased an image of a soldier wearing an exo-skeleton suit. It was also announced that more details, the cover, the full name, and a trailer would be released on May 4. The trailer was leaked which confirmed the release of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare on November 4, 2014. [12] [13]
On April 21, 2017, Sledgehammer Games and Activision announced their next Call of Duty game, titled Call of Duty: WWII . It was released on November 3, 2017. [14] [15]
In February 2018, Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey left Sledgehammer Games but still working with Activision. [16] In December 2018, Condrey subsequently left Activision to start a career with 2K Games in the Bay Area with 31st Union. Schofield also left the studio to found Striking Distance. [17]
In 2019, while working with Raven Software on Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War , the 2020 entry in the series, the two teams had differing ideas on the game. This led Call of Duty publisher Activision to bring in fellow developer Treyarch to take over the lead development role for Black Ops Cold War, while Sledgehammer and Raven Software took on partner roles. [18] [19]
Sledgehammer opened a new studio in Melbourne, Australia by September 2019. [20] [21] In May 2020, Sledgehammer Games COO Andy Wilson confirmed that the studio was now a multi-project studio with over 200 employees, with plans to hire up to 100 new employees over the next year. [22]
In May 2021, Sledgehammer announced the opening of a new studio in Toronto, Canada. [3] [23] [24] By August 2021, Sledgehammer Games employed over 450 people, with over 150 people working at Sledgehammer Games Melbourne and just over 10 people working at Sledgehammer Games Toronto. [1] In October 2021, Sledgehammer opened a new studio in Guildford in the UK. [25] [26] Sledgehammer lead the development of Call of Duty: Vanguard which was released on November 5, 2021. [27] [28]
Following leaks in Q2 of 2023, Sledgehammer would then develop Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III , the franchise's twentieth release, which was released on November 10, 2023. [29] [30]
Microsoft Gaming laid off 1,900 staff in January 2024. Sledgehammer Games also been impacted by the layoffs. The studio reportedly lost up to 30% of its staff due to these layoffs. [31] [32]
Sledgehammer Games operates out of a "custom-designed" studio with an open-plan space, "high-end" development equipment, and a theater. [10]
As of August 2021, Sledgehammer employs about 450 people. New employees are given a challenge coin engraved with the Sledgehammer Games' values. The tradition dates back to a World War I practice of giving soldiers coins with a squadron's insignia that could be used to prove membership. [7]
Year | Title | Platform(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2011 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows | Co-developed with Infinity Ward, assisted by Raven Software, Treyarch and Neversoft |
2014 | Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare | PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows | Assisted by Raven Software |
2017 | Call of Duty: WWII | Assisted by Raven Software | |
2019 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | Assisting Infinity Ward | |
2020 | Call of Duty: Warzone | Assisting Infinity Ward and Raven Software | |
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows | Assisting Treyarch and Raven Software | |
2021 | Call of Duty: Vanguard | Assisted by Treyarch, High Moon Studios, Beenox, Raven Software, Activision Shanghai, Toys for Bob and Sumo Digital | |
2022 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II | Assisting Infinity Ward | |
Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 | Assisting Infinity Ward and Raven Software | ||
2023 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III | Assisted by Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Beenox, Raven Software, High Moon Studios, Activision Central Tech, Activision Shanghai and Toys for Bob |
Raven Software Corporation is an American video game developer based in Wisconsin and founded in 1990. In 1997, Raven made an exclusive publishing deal with Activision and was subsequently acquired by them. After the acquisition, many of the studio's original developers, largely responsible for creating the Heretic and Hexen: Beyond Heretic games, left to form Human Head Studios.
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016.
Infinity Ward, Inc. is an American video game developer. They developed the video game Call of Duty, along with seven other installments in the Call of Duty series. Vince Zampella, Grant Collier, and Jason West established Infinity Ward in 2002 after working at 2015, Inc. previously. All of the 22 original team members of Infinity Ward came from the team that had worked on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault while at 2015, Inc. Activision helped fund Infinity Ward in its early days, buying up 30 percent of the company, before eventually fully acquiring them. The studio's first game, World War II shooter Call of Duty, was released on the PC in 2003. The day after the game was released, Activision bought the rest of Infinity Ward, signing employees to long-term contracts. Infinity Ward went on to make Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, the Modern Warfare reboot, and its sequel.
Neversoft Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Woodland Hills, California. The studio was founded by Joel Jewett, Mick West and Chris Ward in July 1994 and was acquired by Activision in October 1999. Initially, the studio worked with Playmates Toys, where they worked on the game Skeleton Warriors, which was based on a animated television series of the same name. Throughout 1996, the studio grew, and worked on projects with Crystal Dynamics and Sony Computer Entertainment, but due to internal conflicts, they were cancelled.
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Call of Duty is a video game series and media franchise published by Activision, starting in 2003. The games were first developed by Infinity Ward, then by Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games. Several spin-off and handheld games were made by other developers. The most recent title, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, was released on November 10, 2023.
Glen Schofield is an American video game artist, designer, director, and producer. He was formerly the vice president and general manager at Visceral Games, co-founder of Sledgehammer Games, founder and former CEO of Striking Distance Studios, and the creator and executive producer of the third-person survival horror video game Dead Space.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is a 2009 first-person shooter game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It is the sixth installment in the Call of Duty series and the direct sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It was released worldwide on November 10, 2009, for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. A separate version for the Nintendo DS, titled Modern Warfare: Mobilized, was also released on the same day. A version for OS X was developed by Aspyr and released in May 2014, and the Xbox 360 version was made backward compatible for the Xbox One in 2018.
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Michael Condrey is the co-founder and former studio head of Sledgehammer Games, which he founded with Glen Schofield after their collaboration on the popular video game franchise Dead Space. He is now the president of 31st Union, a 2K studio located in Silicon Valley, California.
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