Sledgehammer Games is a video game developer company located in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. Sledgehammer Games is one of the primary studios working on the Call of Duty franchise.
History
Sledgehammer Games was founded during summer 2009 by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey[2] and acquired by Activision the same year. The studio originally worked on Call of Duty: Vietnam, a third-person shooter set during the Cold War.
In early 2011, following tensions between Activision and Infinity Ward, leading to the departure of its founders and half of its staff, Sledgehammer Games was tasked to assist the remaining staff of Infinity Ward on what would become Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Call of Duty: Vietnam was put on hiatus and subsequently cancelled. Modern Warfare 3 was a massive success grossing over $400 million on its launch day and became the fastest-grossing entertainement product to reach $1 billion in 16 days. The record was eventually broken by Call of Duty: Black Ops II when it reached $1 billion in 15 days.
After Modern Warfare 3, Sledgehammer Games became one of the primary studios with Infinity Ward and Treyarch, creating a 3-years release cycle, and developed Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare released in 2014. Advanced Warfare was created using a re-written custom in-house engine based on the IW engine and featured Exo Movements for the first time in the franchise.
In 2017, Sledgehammer Games released Call of Duty: WWII, the first Call of Duty game set during World War II since Call of Duty: World at War in 2008. WWII used the same engine as Advanced Warfare. WWII grossed over $500 million within its first three days of release and crossed $1 billion the following month.
On February 20, 2018, Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey left the studio and were promoted to executive duties at Activision before leaving the company the following months.
Employees
- Aaron Halon - Former Senior Development Director, now Studio Head
- Eric Pierce - Senior Technical Animator/Artist
- Christopher Stone - Animation Director
- Joe Salud - Art Director
- Bret Robbins - Creative Diretor
- Scott Whitney - Narrative Director
- Dennis Adams - Development Director
- David Swenson - Lead Sound Designer, Audio Director
- Martin Morgan - Historian, Advisor of for campaign of Call of Duty: WWII
- Raymond Lussier - Systems Designer
Former Employees
- Glen Schofield - Vice President and General Manager
- Michael Condrey - Vice President and CEO
- Guy Beahm - Community Manager, Level Designer
- Jonathan Simas - Designer
- Cameron Dayton - Creative Director of Nazi Zombies mode
Games developed for the Call of Duty series
 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Nov. 2011) (In collaboration with Infinity Ward) |
 Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (Nov. 2014) (Current-Gen versions) |
 Call of Duty: WWII (Nov. 2017) |
Assistant Developer
Cancelled Games
References
- ↑ Edge #307 - July 2017
- ↑ https://twitter.com/MichaelCondrey/status/360802127989321728
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