Infinity Ward opens a new studio in Austin, Texas
"Our studio provides a safe, trusting, and empowering environment to unleash your creativity and help make the extraordinary."
Infinity Ward has opened a "brand new studio" in Austin, Texas.
Confirmation came via a recruitment advertisement on Activision's own website, in which the developer put out a call to recruit an "expert UI engineer" to work on Call of Duty at the new studio.
"Founded in 2002, Infinity Ward is the original studio behind the Call of Duty franchise," the developer said. "The titles developed by Infinity Ward have won more than 200 'Game of the Year' awards and 100 'Editor's Choice' awards, among many other industry accolades.
"Some of our previous titles include: Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and most recently, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare."
As for the new studio itself? It seems as though the new office will focus exclusively on creating "new and innovation experiences" for Call of Duty.
"Infinity Ward has opened a brand new studio in Austin, [Texas]. The studio will work on creating new and innovative experiences for Call of Duty and create state-of-the-art technology to power them. Our studio provides a safe, trusting, and empowering environment to unleash your creativity and help make the extraordinary.
"Infinity Ward is wholly owned by Activision."
As pointed out by commenters on the Gaming Leaks and Rumours subreddit, Activision now has over a dozen studios working on its flagship franchise, including: Activision Central Design, Activision Localization Dublin, Activision QA, Activision Shanghai Studio, Beenox, Demonware, Digital Legends Entertainment, High Moon Studios, Infinity Ward, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, Solid State Studios, Team Ricochet, Toys for Bob, and Treyarch.
The latest Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare 3, failed to impress us, with Chris awarding it just two out of five stars and stating that it was "an exercise in extracting value from its players rather than providing it".
"The new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is what happens when this industry is at its worst," he wrote.
"This is the worst Call of Duty in some time. Its typical prestige, mega-budget gloss and fastidious attention to the craft - whatever you may think of that craft itself - is either missing in action or otherwise overshadowed. It's a game towered over by an amalgamation of the series' worst tendencies - no, more than that, by an entire industry's worst tendencies - a position from which no amount of retro multiplayer map nostalgia and battle pass tat can help it emerge."