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Sledgehammer Games became a Call of Duty studio in two steps: it joined Infinity Ward to help make Modern Warfare 3, then Activision gave it the lead on Advanced Warfare. The team’s path ran from an early third-person action-adventure prototype to shared production on a major franchise release and, finally, a new setting and mechanics of its own.
The clearest account comes from a GamesBeat interview with co-founders Michael Condrey and Glen Schofield, published July 31, 2014 and updated June 18, 2025. It documents the studio’s early history, not its current assignments.
What Sledgehammer Games set out to make
Dead Space co-creators Michael Condrey and Glen Schofield founded Sledgehammer Games with Call of Duty-related work in mind. The studio initially prototyped a third-person action-adventure game, rather than beginning with the first-person format associated with Call of Duty.
That initial direction changed when Infinity Ward needed help on Modern Warfare 3. Schofield told GamesBeat that Sledgehammer’s roughly 40-person team joined from day one and split the work with Infinity Ward. He recalled: “We all made the decision, and unanimously decided to do it. We didn’t jump in the middle. We were there day one on Modern Warfare 3. We split the work with Infinity Ward.” The game shipped in 2011, according to the interview.
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From shared production to leading a game
Working on Modern Warfare 3 put Sledgehammer inside an established Call of Duty production, but the next step was different: Activision entrusted the studio with its own installment, Advanced Warfare, Schofield said. The distinction was both organizational and creative.
| Early phase | Assignment | Creative scope |
|---|---|---|
| Modern Warfare 3 | Shared production with Infinity Ward; Sledgehammer joined from day one. | Contributed within the existing Modern Warfare game. |
| Advanced Warfare | Sledgehammer led its own Call of Duty installment. | Established a near-future setting and introduced exoskeleton-enabled movement. |
Condrey described the opportunity as a chance “to go after the next-generation experience and really innovate.” He also framed the motivation as offering players a change: “It was time to give you a new experience.” These are the founders’ characterizations in the 2014 interview, not a statement of Activision’s current studio structure.
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How the studio organized its growing team
The founders described a cross-functional working style in which different disciplines collaborated closely rather than operating in isolated silos. Condrey explained: “We build pods of cross-functional developers, with an engineer sitting with an artist sitting with an animator sitting with a level designer.”
Condrey said Sledgehammer had grown from its two founders to 225 people over five years. That is a historical figure reported by him in the 2014 interview, not a current headcount or an independently audited census. Schofield’s estimate of about 40 people refers to the team at the time it worked on Modern Warfare 3.
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Why Advanced Warfare looked and played differently
Advanced Warfare was set 40 years in the future, a fictional timeframe, and built its action around a near-future military world and exoskeleton-assisted movement. The founders said they used research and then-existing prototypes to judge which futuristic ideas felt plausible for the game.
Schofield described the research effort this way: “The amount of research we put into this game is insane — the books, the articles, the scientists we talk to, the trips we’ve taken, the people we’ve brought in.” He said the team connected visible game elements to sources and working concepts: “Everything you see in the game, we can point you to the article. We can point you to the prototype. We can point you to something that’s actually working now.” Those comments describe the developers’ approach and do not make the game’s technology a prediction of what will exist in the future.
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- MULTIPLAYER BUILT ON CONTROL — Engage in grounded, precise combat where fluid movement, player choice, and refined mechanics give you greater control in every firefight.
The Advanced Warfare development period was described by Condrey as three years. The same interview presents the campaign’s focus on Private Mitchell as a choice for this particular game, not a permanent rule for the Call of Duty franchise.
What the interview establishes—and what it does not
The GamesBeat account is a historical interview with the studio’s founders. It explains the early transition from a Call of Duty-related prototype to assisting on Modern Warfare 3, then leading Advanced Warfare. Its figures—such as team size and development duration—are attributed statements from that interview, rather than independently verified measurements.
Because the interview was published in 2014, its descriptions of assignments and development belong to that period. The update date of June 18, 2025 does not turn it into a current account of Sledgehammer Games’ organizational role or present-day projects.
Source: GamesBeat interview with Sledgehammer Games co-founders Michael Condrey and Glen Schofield, published July 31, 2014; updated June 18, 2025.
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