Activision has announced that a new installment in the Call of Duty franchise is currently being developed and will be available sometime in 2011.

Before you get too excited about the new Call of Duty announcement, I must mention that it will not be a new FPS. Development is being handed off to Sledgehammer Games, a brand new studio created by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey. They both previously worked at Visceral Games, the studio that created Dead Space. Instead of going the obvious route of creating another FPS, they have elected to make an action adventure game. We can expect to see the new game sometime in 2011.

Completely overshadowing the new game announcement, rumors have surfaced and then were confirmed that two top people from Infinity Ward were fired today. Infinity Ward, the developers behind the insanely popular Modern Warfare 2, is apparently without their President and CEO. Jason West and Vince Zampella were both removed from their positions for rumored breach of contract and insubordination. Several sources are suggesting that Infinity Ward was looking to create a new IP and that they were shopping this to publishing rivals of Activision. These are all just rumors at this point but sources have stated that some bouncer types showed up at the Infinity Ward offices and that West and Zampella were nowhere to be found after a meeting with Activision. Stay tuned to hear more as the Infinity Ward/Activision soap opera continues.