Who makes Call of Duty? The developers behind the popular first-person shooters

The Call of Duty franchise at this point has become a mainstay of popular media. The games have evolved from World War-era shooters to modern-day combat and even futuristic space battles.

The franchise hasn't always had the greatest of track records when it comes to critical reception. However, there is no doubt that the franchise is one of the most commercially successful franchises in the history of gaming. The games are published by Activision, but are developed by multiple studios.

The Call of Duty franchise follows an annual release cycle, meaning that Activision releases an installment in the franchise every year. This means that multiple studios are working on the game year-round so as to allow for a proper developmental cycle.

The Call of Duty franchise also has multiple series within the franchise itself with Modern Warfare and the Black Ops being the most popular long-running series.

The multiple developers of Call of Duty games

(picture credits: gurugamer)

There are a total of 3 studios who develop the Call of Duty Games, namely:

• Infinity Ward
• Treyarch
• Sledgehammer

Infinity Ward are the developers behind the original world war shooter Call of Duty. Infinity Ward comprises of developers who had previously worked on EA's Medal of Honor franchise, another world war shooter.

Treyarch was brought in by Activision as they had previously worked on Spider-Man games for Activision. They are the ones behind the Black Ops series of Call of Duty games.

Sledgehammer Games is the most recent acquisition by Activision for the Call of Duty franchise. Their first independent project as a studio for the Call of Duty franchise was Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, and more recently: Call of Duty: WWII.

The franchise's latest entry, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare introduced the extremely popular free-to-play Battle Royale mode called Warzone. The game has been massively successful and is currently in its 4th Season.