In an announcement that will shock absolutely no one, Activision has revealed that it will release a new "Call of Duty" game this year. What is newsworthy, however, is the revelation that Sledgehammer Games is the developer of the latest installment of this hit shooter franchise.

Famously, "Call of Duty" games bounce between multiple development companies in order to be able to release a new game each year; for "Call of Duty 2021," Sledgehammer Games, which was the developer of 2017's "Call of Duty: WWII" and 2014's "Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Sledgehammer, which spearheaded the development of the franchise, will once again take the helm. The studio has also played a supportive role for Infinity Ward and Treyarch on the recent Call of Duty.

This information was announced during Activision's Q1 earnings call, where Activision bosses said the game is "coming along great" and is "on track" for a release this fall. Whispers behind the scenes suggest that development of the series' 2021 game has been a very rough road, so this may come as a relief to Call of Duty fans.

In addition to a full campaign, the game will include multiplayer (of course!) and some form of co-op mode has been confirmed to be included. The game will also be "integrated with and enhance the existing Call of Duty ecosystem."

Cutting through the marketing speak, this probably refers to compatibility with Call of Duty: Warzone, as in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, where the free-to-play battle royale mode is themed to work with the new game. likely to be changed.

During the earnings call, it was also stated that the game is being created as a "next generation experience". This could mean that the game will skip the PS4 and Xbox One altogether and be released exclusively for the PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles. However, since Call of Duty abandoned the PS3 and Xbox 360 two years later, it is unlikely that the series is still committed solely to next-gen consoles.

Little else is known about Call of Duty 2021, but persistent rumors suggest that it will be titled Call of Duty: WWII Vanguard and may depict an alternate history of World War II.

Sledgehammer developed Call of Duty: World War II, so it makes sense that they would be working on a sequel. However, Activision may want to create something entirely new to compete with "Battlefield 6," which is due out this year.

The earnings call also revealed that "Call of Duty" continues to be a gaming giant; Call of Duty has 150 million monthly active users across all supported titles. Therefore, we do not expect the annual release of the series to disappear anytime soon, and there will almost certainly be a new Call of Duty title released every year for the foreseeable future."