The studio behind the Tony Hawk series and Guitar Hero have started working on Call of Duty. Evil Avatar note that their website has been updated with a message saying "we have molded our team into a crack squad of eager developers ready to push the First Person Action genre in support of Activision's Call of Duty franchise."
Working "in support" suggests they might be handling ongoing DLC content for an upcoming Call of Duty, in the same way that Sledgehammer are supporting Modern Warfare 3 with Call of Duty Elite content. Alternatively, they could be working on a new CoD title entirely, but will it have skateboards?
It's impossible to tell at this early stage, but judging from the cycling mocap studio shots and the job listings on the site, it won't be a small spin-off. The job ads require "experience designing top notch levels or gameplay experiences in shipped AAA titles" So there we are, Neversoft are the latest members of Activision's Call of Duty tag team, consisting of Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer and Raven.
Treyarch are busy putting together Call of Duty: Black Ops for release later this year. Based on previous form, Infinity Ward will be making Modern Warfare 4 for 2013, but a Neversoft project could give one of Activision's other studios an extra year or two to move CoD into an upgraded engine, though that may be wishful thinking. Frostbite 2 will start pushing 64-bit OS systems next year, with the release of Battlefield 3 and Medal of Honor, Call of Duty is in danger of looking increasingly dated.
