No Black Ops 3 or WaW 2 Zombies Until 2015 - Sledgehammer Making COD 2014

It's officially confirmed there will be no Black Ops 3 or World at War 2 coming in 2014. Many of you had hoped for a Treyarch game this year but Sledgehammer Games have confirmed they're the ones making COD in 2014. This all but confirms COD Zombies will NOT be released until 2015.

The COD development cycle will now be Sledgehammer, Treyarch, Infinity Ward. Each studio creating a new COD game every year, with a 3 year development cycle for each.

Blog post from Sledgehammer: http://sledgehammergames.com/blog/

Sledgehammer who?

Some of you will be wondering who Sledgehammer games are. Well that's not a surprise as they've only developed one game back in 2009. That game was Modern Warfare 3 (MW3), co-developed with Infinity Ward - yes you heard right!

However, MW3 was the fastest selling entertainment product of all time and even beat the previous year's record set by Black Ops. It received positive reviews and the multiplayer aspect was addictive, but not revolutionary. Most would argue that expectation rather than the quality of the game made for great sales.

MW3 also incorporated the new survival mode called Spec Ops, which bears some resemblance to Extinction mode in Ghosts. Players had to spend money to buy upgrades and additional weapons whilst holding off waves of enemies. Sadly, the mode was an unimaginative disappointment after the colossal success of Black Ops Zombies.

Where next? An adventure COD game?

The co-founders of Sledgehammer Games are well known as Schofield and Condrey. Previous projects include the Dead Space series, one of the all-time best FPS games. Before the legal battle during the MW3 development, Sledgehammer Games had produced a prototype for the next COD game which would take the series into the action adventure genre.

The Dead Space series plays into the adventure model by mixing puzzles and objectives with collectables and an inventory system. The game still plays in real time though, keeping in line with the traditional fast paced FPS genre.

Could this adventure proposal come back in COD 2014?

It would be no surprise if Sledgehammer decided to take COD in a different direction. Given their history and the lack of creativity in the COD series at the moment it would make sense. Nevertheless, this will be the first time Sledgehammer Games have had sole responsibility for Call of Duty game and a lot of pressure will be on them this year.

With many hoping for a Treyarch game they've already got some haters. But based on the talent working at SG it would be no surprise if they did pull an amazing COG game out of the bag. It all depends if they stick with the formula and grind out the sales or go for something entirely new and take the plunge.

No zombies until 2015! You serious!

I know, I hear you. 2015 is a long way off right? There's still hope though, especially if you're a long time zombie veteran. Thanks to the amazing work from the zombies modding community, the Custom Zombies maps are getting better and better.

They've managed to bring in many of the Black Ops 2 weapons, most of the perk machines and even recreate some of the Black Ops 2 maps. You've got to give them credit for keeping the zombie fan base going and we really need them now until 2015 comes around.

So here's to all the Custom Zombies map makers - keep up the good work!