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In a series first, Call of Duty: Vanguard will continue the Zombies story from Black Ops Cold War. Traditionally, a franchise developer will only work on its own Zombie mode that acts independent to the ones operating in the other sub-franchises of Call of Duty. That still remains somewhat true, as Treyarch will be handling Zombies in Call of Duty: Vanguard while Sledgehammer works on the core multiplayer and campaign.
An in-game Warzone event and trailer revealed Call of Duty: Vanguard and confirmed its leaked World War II setting. The new entry will place players in the shoes of four different soldiers across the war's various theaters, allowing for varied gameplay and settings across history's largest global conflict. The game's multiplayer is also expected to carry over many of the innovations from previous games, such as Gunsmith and purchasable operators, but Vanguard will also add new modes and mechanics, as well. An alpha is expected to be held by the end of August, and it will reportedly feature a new mode built exclusively for Call of Duty: Vanguard.
One of the things that will remain largely untouched by Sledgehammer, however, is Zombies. Activision officially confirmed that co-developer Treyarch will be returning to continue Black Ops Cold War's Zombies story for Call of Duty: Vanguard, and it will build off of the story that began in the 2020 entry. Treyarch is expected to release one more Zombies map for Black Ops Cold War prior to Vanguard's launch. It's unclear if there will be any dramatic gameplay overhauls for Call of Duty: Vanguard's Zombies or if it'll largely remain the same as Black Ops Cold War, but a look at gameplay is coming sometime just prior to the game's November 5 launch.
Treyarch has been actively updating Black Ops Cold War Zombies since last November, meaning the studio has kept busy leading up to this surprise Call of Duty: Vanguard collaboration. In 2019, reputable sources told Kotaku that Black Ops Cold War was meant to be developed by Sledgehammer, but the Vanguard studio was pulled off of the project and rebooted by Treyarch mid-development. With the way the development cycles tend to work on this series, Treyarch will likely release another Call of Duty game in 2023. Activision's development studios are well-staffed, but Treyarch's work on Vanguard Zombies still comes as a surprise in terms of production resources.
Since Sledgehammer and its co-developers reportedly built Call of Duty: Vanguard in about two years, the studio likely needed all the help it could get to meet its 2021 deadline. Since Treyarch is the original creator of Zombies mode, it only makes sense to have that team come in and offer a helping hand. Only time will tell if Treyarch is able to offer any kind of meaningful innovation on the mode in this tight time window, and Vanguard's integration with Warzone will also be interesting to see later this year.
Call of Duty: Vanguard will be available on November 5, 2021.
Source: Call of Duty