Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, the sci-fi FPS title released back in 2014, reportedly had a sequel in the works for some time, according to a recent interview from former Sledgehammer Games Creative Director Bret Robbins. Robbins revealed that Advanced Warfare 2 had an internal demo already prepared before switching focus to Call of Duty: WWII instead.

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Robbins explained in an interview with MinnMax that while Sledgehammer Games ended up switching to WWII, he was glad that he did, as it proved to be an “educational” experience.

Q: I remember with Advanced Warfare there was so much talk about, like, “Winky winky, we’re saving this for the sequel, Advanced Warfare 2, this is gonna be sweet, alright, let’s make sure [to] leave Kevin Spacey alive, winky winky,” which, y’know, time has judged that differently. But how far did you all get with Advanced Warfare 2? 

A: We started down that road, we had some early prototypes, I think we might have even done a demo level of it. And then, I can’t remember all the reasons or decisions but it felt like WWII had come back and it felt like a better opportunity, and so we just shifted gears and started working on that. It was cool for me because I honestly didn’t know a whole lot about the lore, kind of an average person’s knowledge of it, so being to research it and dig into it was pretty educational, so I’m glad we did it, I’m glad we switched gears. I think Advanced Warfare 2 would have been awesome, but, you know.

When asked whether or not the decision to switch to WWII was an executive one, Robbins mentions that while it did partially influence the switch, there were still those that had an interest in Advanced Warfare 2.

Q: Yeah, but that’s an executive thing again, of them being like, y’know, maybe World War II’s the way to go?

A: A little bit, yeah, but I think also once it was sort of, like, brought to the team, as like “Hey, we can do one or the other,” we did find a lot of, y’know, even on the team, a lot of people interested in going back, it felt like a bit more of a story and bit more of something exciting and different. 

While the original Advanced Warfare 2 demo never got fully fleshed out back then, recent rumors of Advanced Warfare 2’s development have surfaced, and by Sledgehammer Games no less, so time will tell if the studio has finally decided to bring back one of the more unique entries in the Call of Duty franchise.

Source: MinnMax (thanks, CharlieIntel)