Giant Bomb reports that after Neversoft studio, the developer behind Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero franchises, has helped Infinity Ward with the development of Call of Duty: Ghosts, Activision will be retiring the Neversoft studio, and merge its staff with Infinity Ward. Neversoft studio was formed in 1994 and since the release of the finished project, Call of Duty: Ghosts sold over 14 million units.
Giant Bomb obtained an internal memo from Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, which details the merging of the two studios under Infinity Ward. Also mentions how successful the two studios worked on the development of Call of Duty: Ghosts, saying “it seemed like a single ‘super-studio’ could emerge.”
With the newly expanded Infinity Ward studio, the memo mentions that both Neversoft studio head Joel Jewett and studio director Scott Pease are quitting the company, but they will stay with studio during the transition until later this year. While Activision worldwide studio head Dave Stohl will be taking lead at Infinity Ward.
“We are merging these two very talented teams and obviously had to choose a name for the combined studio,” added Hirshberg. “Since the Infinity Ward brand is indelibly tied to the Call of Duty franchise, it is the sensible choice. While it will be strange to not see the Neversoft logo on future games, the important things, which are the Neversoft team’s talent, creativity, professionalism and commitment to creative excellence, all remain unchanged as part of this new chapter.”
With the announcement trailer for the next Call of Duty game, Advanced Warfare is being developed by Sledgehammer Games, which will be released November 4th. The franchise will be going through a cycle, which following Advanced Warfare, Treyarch will be developing the next entry in the franchise and Activision revealed that Infinity Ward’s, and now Neversoft’s next project will be yet another Call of Duty game, following Treyarch’s entry in the franchise.
For more details on the reported merger, check out Giant Bomb.