Sounds To Us Like The Call Of Duty Franchise Is Over.

It'll continue to be a big deal for a while longer. But it kinda sounds like the franchise is done.

In a whole pile of drama starting yesterday, Activision has fired the Infinity Ward bosses Vince Zampella and Jason West. Activision's also filed a document citing a human resources investigation “into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward". Gamasutra argue that the "insubordination" clause might be Activision's way of getting out of a contract with Infinity Ward that states only they can make games in the Modern Warfare franchise. Big stuff right there. But we haven't finished yet.

Indeed Activision announced last night that new upstarts Sledgehammer games (formerly of EA's Visceral team) will work on an "action-adventure" Call Of Duty game in 2011, alongside another Call Of Duty game by an unknown developer.

Basically, Activision are milking Call Of Duty for everything it's worth and the two guys that were responsible for kick-starting the franchise, well, they're no longer at Infinity Ward.