Editor’s Note: A lawsuit has been filed against Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which alleges the company has engaged in abuse, discrimination, and retaliation against its female employees. Activision Blizzard has denied the allegations. The full details of the Activision Blizzard lawsuit (content warning: rape, suicide, abuse, harassment) are being updated as new information becomes available.
In a series first, Call of Duty. That still remains somewhat true, as Treyarch will be handling Zombies in Call of Duty: Vanguard while Sledgehammer works on the core multiplayer and campaign.
An in-game Warzone event and trailer Call of Duty: Vanguard.
One of the things that will remain largely untouched by Sledgehammer, however, is Zombies. Activision officially confirmed that co-developer Treyarch will be returning to continue Black Ops Cold War's Zombies story for Call of Duty: Vanguard, and it will build off of the story that began in the 2020 entry. Treyarch is expected to release one more Zombies map for Black Ops Cold War prior to Vanguard's launch. It's unclear if there will be any dramatic gameplay overhauls for Call of Duty: Vanguard's Zombies or if it'll largely remain the same as Black Ops Cold War, but a look at gameplay is coming sometime just prior to the game's November 5 launch.
Treyarch has been actively updating Black Ops Cold War Zombies since last November, meaning the studio has kept busy leading up to this surprise Call of Duty: Vanguard collaboration. In 2019, reputable sources told Kotaku that Black Ops Cold War was meant to be developed by Sledgehammer, but the Vanguard studio was pulled off of the project and rebooted by Treyarch mid-development. With the way the development cycles tend to work on this series, Treyarch will likely release another Call of Duty game in 2023. Activision's development studios are well-staffed, but Treyarch's work on Vanguard Zombies still comes as a surprise in of production resources.
Since Sledgehammer and its co-developers reportedly built Call of Duty: Vanguard in about two years, the studio likely needed all the help it could get to meet its 2021 deadline. Since Treyarch is the original creator of Zombies mode, it only makes sense to have that team come in and offer a helping hand. Only time will tell if Treyarch is able to offer any kind of meaningful innovation on the mode in this tight time window, and Vanguard's integration with Warzone will also be interesting to see later this year.
Call of Duty: Vanguard will be available on November 5, 2021.
Source: Call of Duty
