It’s unclear where the third game will be made if IW really has gone AWOL from the series.

We were told by one dev source that a Canadian studio was handling it, but another pointed to newly-formed Sledgehammer Games, headed by ex-Visceral bosses Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey.

Sledgehammer, based in the Bay Area, is currently recruiting for a multiplayer designer with “five years experience working on current AAA multiplayer shooters for current consoles and PC.”

The identity of Sledgehammer’s first project is yet to be announced. Activision’s only Canadian developer is Vancouver-based Radical Entertainment, the studio behind last year’s free-roaming adventure, Prototype.

Rumour surrounding the Call of Duty franchise in general is escalating. A report yesterday claimed that Treyarch is currently putting together a story-focused, Vietnam-based episode in the series for release later this year.