14 DAY TRIAL // Ever since Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was first announced, the developers at Sledgehammer Games were focused on explaining that the game would be entirely separate from previous timelines, like that of Modern Warfare or that of Black Ops.
But their ambition seems to be even greater than creating a new series of titles, as the studio wants to craft an entirely new franchise inside the shooter universe that Activision has created over the years.
Speaking to VentureBeat, Glen Schofield, one of the co-founders of Sledgehammer Games, states, “It’s next-generation, and it’s 40 years in the future. There is really nothing you can borrow. This game had to be done from scratch. This is really a brand new franchise within Call of Duty. It’s a new intellectual property.”
The studio was created by veterans from Visceral Games, and their emphasis on complex stories and atmosphere will be one of the main elements that will distinguish Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare from other titles in the same universe.
Michael Condrey, a co-founder of Sledgehammer, adds, “We had the people, the resources, and the time. This has the scale and the scope of the equivalent of four Hollywood movies in it. It has hundreds of hours of multiplayer gameplay. It has full cooperative mode. It takes an army of industry vets to create this kind of content.”
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will take gamers to 2054 and will focus its narrative on a battle between a major Private Military Company and national armies, with the player having to decide which side is right and how they can navigate the complex moral issues linked to the situation they are in.
Sledgehammer Games is using the far future setting in order to introduce a variety of technologically-advanced hardware to the shooter, starting with a complex exo-skeleton system that allows players to move in new ways and take more damage.
The game will also feature a weapon that can print its own bullets, hover bikes with ballistic shields, and a plasma rifle that is designed to take out infantry men without killing them.
The developers are planning to offer more details on the multiplayer element of the title on August 11 via a special event.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be out on November 4 of this year on the PC, the Xbox One from Microsoft, the PlayStation 4 from Sony and last-gen consoles.
