Sledgehammer Games is apparently returning to the first original Call of Duty sub-series.

Call of Duty is slowly running out of ideas, as it seems that we are getting a new Advanced Warfare game from Sledgehammer Games. The studio’s latest attempt at Advanced Warfare was the poorly received World War II episode Vanguard.

Assuming the Call of Duty development cycle goes according to plan, Advanced Warfare 2 will follow Treyarch’s game, which will be the next game in the franchise after this year’s Modern Warfare 2.

The news comes from a report by Ralph Valve, a leaker with a proven track record in Call of Duty sensations. According to their account, the new Advanced Warfare will be built on the updated IW 9.0 engine – the same one that powers Modern Warfare 2 and Treyarch’s yet-to-be-announced game.

This is not surprising; Activision recently decided that IW 9.0 will be the main engine for COD, saving resources and development time for the various studios, who previously each ran on a fork of the classic engine.

In developing Vanguard, the team planned to expand the game in future sequels. However, given how severely underpowered it was, a sequel to Vanguard was no longer on the table. Instead, the studio was asked to make a new episode, according to Ralph Valve.

This will, presumably, mark a return to the faster-paced, advanced-motion era that the original Advanced Warfare introduced to the series.

However, there is no word on how much the game will stick to these basics.

Advanced Warfare 2 may end up being a prequel game that doesn’t include as much future tech/jetpack-based movement as is assumed, though this is obviously speculation.

Nevertheless, it appears that Advanced Warfare 2 will be released in 2025 – a year after Treyarch’s game, indicating Activision’s intention to return to the annual COD release rhythm. 2023, however, will reportedly be a new Call of Duty-less year.

Source: What If Gaming