During Activision's financial conference call for calendar year 2016, the company confirmed that 2017's Call of Duty game is being developed by Sledgehammer Games, that brought us Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare in 2014.

While this will probably surprise no one, Activision promised to take the franchise "back to its roots," with traditional combat "taking once again center stage."

According to Activision, this is exciting both for the Call of Duty community and the developers at Sledgehammer Games.

The company explained that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was a "high quality, innovative game,"  but admitted that the game underperformed compared to expectations, and the space setting "just didn't resonate" with a portion of the audience.

We heard that, while Activision saw the risks in the setting, they had a a passionate and committed studio at work on it, and believed that it's important to consider the passion of developers in deciding what content to create.

While the game wasn't the success Activision planned, the company underlined the fact that it allowed to protect a "core tenet of its culture," which is empowering development teams to pursue opportunities that they're passionate about.

"Providing an environment that recognizes this passion is a critical component of our success, and the process of learning from our mistakes is what makes our company special."