Call of Duty Advanced Warfare 2 was originally planned by Sledgehammer Games before the studio settled on Call of Duty WW2, Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing has said.
Speaking during an interview with Game Informer, Hirshberg also revealed that the upcoming first-person shooter will unlikely be the final entry in the multi-million selling franchise to feature an historical setting.
“I think the original desire at Sledgehammer was to make Advanced Warfare 2 for very understandable reasons, because what developer doesn’t want a sequel and to start a long-standing sub-franchise that they sort of have unique ownership over?” When the conversation about WWII started though, “it didn’t take long for them to get really excited about it, for their team to get excited about it, and they were off and running.”
“Well, you know I can’t reveal things on the slate that are several years off, but no I don’t necessarily see it as a one-off; I think that World War II and historical settings more broadly are very rich territory, and I think there’s every possibility that that could become an area that we explore more than once.”
Pushed as to whether or not the Advanced Warfare franchise may return at some point, Hirshberg replied:
“Oh god [laughs]. Just uh, proba– I don’t know [laughs]. I don’t wanna take a decisive position. It’s one of those things that, you know, if you stay on the train long enough, the scenery keeps changing.”
Call of Duty was originally a World War II-focused shooter before transitioning to contemporary battlefields with 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The last game in the series to feature a WWII setting prior to this year’s outing was 2008’s Call of Duty: World at War, developed by Treyarch.
The Call of Duty WW2 beta is currently ongoing for PS4 and Xbox One owners for those who pre-ordered the title.