In 2014, the eleventh mainline Call of Duty game titled Advanced Warfare was released with a focus on futuristic gameplay, featuring a couple of celebrities. While garnering generally positive reviews, Advanced Warfare was never followed up with a sequel - now we know why.
According to a former Call of Duty developer, the franchise almost saw the addition of an Advanced Warfare sequel. Brett Robbins made this revelation during a recent interview with MinnMax where he stated that the follow-up was in the works in 2017 at Sledgehammer Games, the studio responsible for the original title.
Robbins, who was a Senior Creative Director at Sledgehammer Games, further revealed that the title had an early prototype before the project was canceled in favor of Call of Duty: World War 2. In his words, "We had some early prototypes and might have even done a demo level of it, and then WW2 came back and felt like a better opportunity. I’m glad we did, I am glad we switched gears, but Advanced Warfare 2 would have been awesome."
Robbins’s sentiment was shared by the rest of his team as, according to him, a lot of people on the team were interested in developing the World War 2-inspired title which they felt had more story and was "a bit more exciting and different."
Although it’s been almost 10 years since Advanced Warfare came out, the title still has a passionate fanbase. For proof, one only need to look at the numerous rumors of a sequel that have emerged over the years. Unfortunately, there is no indication that developer Sledgehammer Games or publisher Activision Blizzard plans to develop a sequel anytime soon, or ever.
While the most recent Call of Duty arrived last October, there are rumors that Sledgehammer Games is already working on another title slated for release this year. The game’s publisher, Activision Blizzard, seemed to confirm the rumors in a financial report released in February.
Microsoft is still dueling out with Sony on its planned purchase of Activision Blizzard. The tech behemoth argued that making Call of Duty, one of Sony’s talking points against the purchase, exclusive to its Xbox platform is not a good business decision.
However, Sony doesn’t seem interested in any of the company’s concessions and has claimed it (Microsoft) could release a buggy version of future Call of Duty games for the PlayStation console. Regardless, several countries such as Japan have given the deal the green light.
