Sledgehammer Games, Inc. is an American video game developer company formed in 2009 by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey. The 👄 pair formerly worked at Visceral Games and are responsible for the creation of Dead Space. The company is based in 👄 Foster City, California.[5] The studio has developed and co-developed various video games in the Call of Duty series.
History [ edit 👄 ]
Sledgehammer Games co-founders Schofield and Condrey worked together at Electronic Arts in 2005 on 007: From Russia with Love, with 👄 Condrey as director and Schofield executive producer. The collaboration carried forward to Dead Space. The two men had complementary skills 👄 and similar backgrounds—middle class with fathers in the construction business.[6][7]
After founding Sledgehammer Games on July 21, 2009, Schofield and Condrey 👄 made Activision a proposal: they would attempt to replicate their success with Dead Space, with a third-person spin-off of the 👄 Call of Duty franchise. Activision sat on the proposal for weeks until Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick offered to bring 👄 the studio into the Activision fold. Schofield and Condrey accepted, viewing Activision's independent studio model as an opportunity to preserve 👄 the company's creative culture, development methodology and staff, while having the security of an alliance with the industry's largest publisher.[7][8][9]
Sledgehammer 👄 Games spent six to eight months working on the Call of Duty project in 2009, enough to produce a prototype 👄 with about 15 minutes of play.[10] The game would have reportedly expanded the franchise into the action-adventure genre, and a 👄 legal battle between Infinity Ward, the studio behind the Modern Warfare franchise, and co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella resulted 👄 in the pair's departure. They took several Infinity Ward employees with them to their new company, leaving Activision with about 👄 half the staff and a deadline of about 20 months (versus a typical 24 months) to complete the next game 👄 in the franchise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Activision requested that Sledgehammer Games stop work on the third-person shooter 👄 and collaborate with Infinity Ward instead.[7]