With the addition of a third studio to work on the Call of Duty series, Activision has announced a new three-year development plan for each upcoming title.

According to CVG, Activision announced Sledgehammer Games will be added to the rotation of Call of Duty development during an investor call on Thursday. Originally, Infinity Ward and Treyarch would each release a COD title every two years, alternating between which studio would make the next title. Sledgehammer, the studio Infinity Ward had previously teamed up with to help design Modern Warfare 3, will be the studio behind the next COD, which is expected to arrive by late 2014 (mostly likely during the first week of November like every previous entry since Modern Warfare).

Activision Publishing president and CEO Eric Hirshberg claimed that this was done to improve the overall quality of each Call of Duty title and to help differentiate between each title. He also stated this new plan would help free Activision's developers to continue to focus on DLC post-game release before having to jump directly into their next major project.

We already knew Sledgehammer was hiring for a new Call of Duty entry, but it wasn't clear if this was in conjunction with another studio or not before. Now we know Sledgehammer, best known for the original Dead Space, will be helming this year's entry entirely on its own. As such, it's likely the studio will have a wholly original narrative take place apart from the Black Ops and Ghosts universes established by Treyarch and Infinity Ward respectively. We can probably expect the first details to arrive during the NBA Playoffs, as has become the norm for Call of Duty reveals, so at least the wait won't be long to see what Sledgehammer has in store.

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