Activision has announced that all future Call of Duty games will be moving into a three-year development cycle, with studio Sledgehammer Games being handed the CoD keys. Traditionally the series saw a two-year cycle until now, where developers Infinity Ward and Treyarch traded spots in alternating annual releases.

"For the first time, this year's Call of Duty game, and future Call of Duty games, are being built on a three year development cycle," the publisher revealed in this morning's conference call (via IGN). "There are several advantages to doing this, the first is of course quality. This will give our designers more time to envision and to innovate."

For this year's title, Sledgehammer Games has taken the reins, working independently on the title which is great news for the studio that previously played the support role in Call of Duty development. The timeline for CoD now consists of Sledgehammer Games this year, Treyarch's next game in 2015, and Infinity Ward's title in 2016.