For the past handful of years, the Call of Duty franchise has alternated their yearly game titles between developers Infinity Ward (Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, Modern Warfare, Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, Ghosts) and Treyarch (Call of Duty 3, World At War, Black Ops, Black Ops II).

Publisher Activision has decided to change this up now, switching to a three-year cycle. This will begin later this year with the first entry in the series developed by Sledgehammer Games. Adding a third developer will allow each of the three a third year to make the best game they can instead of the two years Treyarch—whose next game will be released in 2015—and Infinity Ward—whose next game will be released in 2016—have been working with.

If the name Sledgehammer Games sounds familiar, it’s because they were once working on a third-person action/adventure Call of Duty spinoff game. When that drama unfolded between Activision and Infinity Ward heads Vince Zampella and Jason West—who ultimately departed the company, bringing a group of their team with them—Sledgehammer was brought in to help the remaining Infinity Ward team complete work on Modern Warfare 3, which went on to break the record for the biggest day-one game at the time.

What the title of the next game will be or what year(s) it will take place in are not yet known.

[Source: IGN]