History
Treyarch was founded in 1996 as Treyarch Inventions and was acquired by Activision in 2001. In 2005, Gray Matter Studios was merged into Treyarch. As part of the 2007 Leipzig Games Convention, Activision announced that Treyarch would be one of three developers behind its first James Bond-based game, 007: Quantum of Solace. The game was released on October 31, 2008, in Europe and November 4, 2008, in North America. Vicarious Visions developed the Nintendo DS version and Eurocom developed the PlayStation 2 version.
Treyarch is a major developer in the Call of Duty franchise, having first worked on Call of Duty 2: Big Red One in 2005. The studio is known for creating the Black Ops sub-series. Call of Duty: Black Ops broke entertainment launch records in November 2010 by generating $360 million in its first 24 hours and selling 5.6 million copies. It reached $650 million worldwide within five days, and topped $1 billion in global retail sales within six weeks of its launch. Call of Duty: Black Ops won Best Shooter at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards. Its sequel, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, earned over $500 million in its first 24 hours, and sold over $1 billion after 15 days. Call of Duty: Black Ops III earned over $550 million in three days, and is the best-selling Call of Duty game of all time with over 43 million copies sold.
Fellow Call of Duty developer Sledgehammer Games was originally slated to lead the development of the 2020 entry but encountered internal tensions and creative differences with co-developer Raven Software. This led to publisher Activision tapping Treyarch to take over from Sledgehammer Games as co-developer for the game alongside Raven Software. This entry was later revealed to be Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Raven Software handled the game's campaign, while Treyarch led the development of the multiplayer and Zombies mode. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War set a new global franchise sales record for most digital units sold on launch day. Treyarch would continue its collaboration with Raven Software for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (2024), and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 (2025).
Dan Bunting, who had been co-lead of Treyarch since around 2003, was named in an investigative report by The Wall Street Journal related to the lawsuit filed against Activision Blizzard by the state of California over workplace misconduct and discrimination. Bunting had reportedly mistreated an employee in 2017, but was kept on by Activision Blizzard's CEO, Bobby Kotick. After The Wall Street Journal began its investigation, Bunting was let go. On August 18, 2023, studio design director David Vonderhaar announced he would be leaving the studio after 18 years.
Aside from being a primary developer for the Call of Duty series, Treyarch also acts as a support studio. Treyarch assisted fellow Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward by working on the Wii version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in 2011 and the Wii U version of Call of Duty: Ghosts in 2013.
Game engines
Treyarch developed an in-house engine named Treyarch NGL, based on id Software's id Tech 3. Treyarch NGL was used for Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (2005) and Call of Duty 3 (2006). Beginning in 2008, Treyarch uses fellow Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward's game engine called the IW engine, which is also based on id Tech 3. The studio used IW 3.0 for 007: Quantum of Solace (2008), Call of Duty: World at War (2008), Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010), and Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012).
With the introduction of the eighth generation of video game consoles, Treyarch heavily modified and upgraded the engine for Call of Duty: Black Ops III in 2015. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 in 2018 features a new 'Super Terrain' system and can accommodate up to 100 players. Treyarch heavily upgraded the engine for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War in 2020, coinciding with the release of the ninth generation of video game consoles.
With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II in 2022, Treyarch co-developed the engine with Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games to be used in future installments of the series in a unified effort to ensure that every studio is working with the same tools. With the new shared engine dubbed IW 9.0, Treyarch was able to introduce a new movement system called 'Omnimovement', auto-mantling for faster navigation, and highly customizable HUD for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in 2024. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 also featured audio improvements and upgrades. This engine is also used in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 the following year.
