Despite the massive legal battle going on between Activision, Electronic Arts, Jason West, and Vince Zampella that has the ownership rights to the Modern Warfare name up in the air, Modern Warfare 3 is already deep into development by a trio of Activision-owned studios.
According to a report from the LA Times, Activision has tapped both Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software to help out the vastly weakened remains of Infinity Ward to make the third installment in the series. Sledgehammer was working on a spin-off to the Call of Duty franchise, but that has now been delayed in order for the studio to help with Modern Warfare 3.
"The game has not been officially announced by Activision," read the story. "But the title is well into production and is expected to come out in November, the same month that the publisher has annually released a new Call of Duty installment, people with knowledge of situation said."
Both Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer will be working on the single-player aspects of Modern Warfare 3. Activision has given Raven the immensely tall task of creating the game’s multiplayer.
Sledgehammer is a studio that was recruited away from EA by Activision. A spokesman for the publisher declined to comment to the LA Times regarding the story.
Seeing as how the rights to Modern Warfare is being fought over in the Activision/EA/West/Zampella lawsuit, it would not be a surprise if West, Zampella, and EA try to block or stall the game’s release.
[LA Times]
