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