A new report has surfaced claiming that Modern Warfare 3 was developed in roughly 16 months, with it initially pitched as DLC. Similar allegations had surfaced prior to the announcement of Modern Warfare 3, with Activision dismissing them, and it seems to be the same case here, with Sledgehammer refuting the claims.

Last year, rumors began circulating that the next Call of Duty would indeed be a follow-up to Modern Warfare 2. At the time, many were shocked, considering that sequels aren’t seen until after the next game in tradition. Things got even more crazier when rumors suggested it was merely DLC, with Activision skipping out on a premium game for the first time in a year. The company soon came out to clarify all this, suggesting otherwise. It seems those reports are surfacing once again due to the poor reception around Modern Warfare 3, as Bloomberg has posted a detailed story about the harsh development time that Sledgehammer Games had undergone to deliver this year’s iteration.

“The process was hurried because this year’s game was conceived to fill a gap in the release schedule following the delay of another Call of Duty title previously planned for 2023. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III was originally pitched to staff at Foster City, California-based developer Sledgehammer Games as an expansion to last year’s title, but it morphed into a full sequel during development, Bloomberg earlier reported.”

They go on to say that multiple sources, both current and former employees, were under the impression that they were developing DLC for MW2, rather than a full sequel, which was told to them later.

After Vanguard, the team had pitched for a futuristic setting, Call of Duty, which would be set in the same era as Advanced Warfare, which got shelved in favor of a Modern-era Call of Duty.

This initially led to the team working on a Modern Warfare spinoff campaign set in Mexico that would have been more attainable in the short amount of development time they were given. That, unfortunately was changed when Activision execs stepped in and forced a reboot.

“For the first few months of the project, which was codenamed Jupiter, the story was conceived as a smaller-scale Modern Warfare spinoff set in Mexico that would be more achievable on a short timeline than the usual globe-trotting escapades of a full new campaign. But in the summer of last year, Activision executives rebooted that story, and told the developers that instead they would be making a direct sequel to Modern Warfare II centering on the villain Vladimir Makarov and featuring missions all across the world.”

The report claims that Sledgehammer Games took 16 months to develop the game we have now. Although players are taking a massive liking to the multiplayer changes, despite still feeling like DLC, its campaign is another story as it has received some heavy criticisms from fans and critics.

Sledgehammer Games released a statement on X from its studio head, Aaron Halon, which says they’ve spent years on this vision, and anyone saying other is “not true.”

Statement from Aaron Halon, studio head, SHG.
“We’re incredibly proud of Modern Warfare III – both the full game experience at launch and the upcoming year of content we have planned for the community. On behalf of the extremely talented team across Sledgehammer Games and our…

— Sledgehammer Games (@SHGames) November 9, 2023

“Statement from Aaron Halon, studio head, SHG. “We’re incredibly proud of Modern Warfare III – both the full game experience at launch and the upcoming year of content we have planned for the community. On behalf of the extremely talented team across Sledgehammer Games and our partner studios with whom we’ve collaborated on development, this has been a labor of love to lead the first ever back-to-back sequel in Call of Duty. We cannot wait to see our community’s reaction to all that the entire game has to offer, across Campaign, Multiplayer and Zombies.

From the start of development, we have all been laser focused on creating the next groundbreaking Call of Duty game. Long before we wrapped up our previous game, we heard loud and clear from fans about the desire to stay and play together for longer within the same series. And that’s what we’ve delivered – the first true sequel in franchise history. It is also why we added features like Carry Forward for the first time to honor the investment our players have made in the Modern Warfare series.

We’re proud to be the team to lead the way on Modern Warfare III. We have worked hard to deliver on this vision which has been years in the making. Anything said to the contrary is simply not true – this is our game and we cannot wait to play it online with all of you.”

It’s hard to know what’s true, and until someone speaks out about it publicly, we likely will never know the truth behind all this.

Still, with the studio and the rest of the Call of Duty teams now under Microsoft, it hopefully means that the teams have more flexibility, allowing them more time for releases rather than being forced to make them annually, as we’ve seen.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 is now available worldwide on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. Stay tuned for our review, which should be in the next few weeks.