Treyarch

Treyarch is a developer.

Treyarch Webpage, Facebook

An American game development studio based in Santa Monica, California, which has been part of Activision since 2001. Although the studio has worked on many different projects over the years, Treyarch became globally known primarily for its work on the Call of Duty: Black Ops series.

History of Treyarch

A period of independence

The studio was founded in 1996 by Peter Akemann and Dogan Köslü. The team’s debut project was Olympic Hockey Nagano ’98, developed for the Nintendo 64. The game hit the market in 1998, and not long after, Treyarch released another title - Die by the Sword, which soon received an expansion called Limb from Limb.

While 1999 brought only a single release - Triple Play 2000 - the following year delivered two new titles: Triple Play 2001 and the Dreamcast hack’n’slash Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm. They also handled the Dreamcast ports of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, bringing both classics to Sega’s console.

2001 turned out to be the studio’s final year as a fully independent team. After launching Triple Play Baseball and Max Steel: Covert Missions, the studio was acquired by Activision. Not long after joining the publisher, Treyarch put out Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2x, an enhanced Xbox port of the celebrated classic. Although NHL 2K2 and NHL 2K3 were released in 2002 - both developed for and published by 2K Games - every project that followed was created exclusively under Activision’s direction and funding.

Under Activision's wings

Later in 2002, Treyarch released Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer, Minority Report: Everybody Runs, and the Spider-Man tie-in game based on the blockbuster movie. In the years that followed, Treyarch noticeably slowed down its game development pace. In 2004, Treyarch released Spider-Man 2, and the following year they developed Ultimate Spider-Man along with the console game Call of Duty 2: Big Red One. It turned out the latter wouldn’t be the team’s last dive into the acclaimed FPS series. In 2006, Treyarch released Call of Duty 3, making it available on PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. In 2007, Treyarch worked on another Marvel superhero game, releasing Spider-Man 3. They then developed Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, which acted as their final entry in the franchise.

In 2008, Treyarch released the game tie-in for the James Bond film Quantum of Solace, as well as the fifth Call of Duty installment, World at War. From that point on, Treyarch became one of the key studios responsible for developing the series.

The Call of Duty era

In 2009, Treyarch released a port of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for the Nintendo Wii, titled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare - Reflex. In 2010, Call of Duty: Black Ops was released, achieving both critical acclaim and commercial success. Building on their experience with the Wii, Treyarch developed another port, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which launched on the console in 2011. Call of Duty: Black Ops II, released the following year, became Treyarch’s biggest hit, raking in a staggering $650 million in just five days.

In 2013, Call of Duty: Ghosts launched, with Treyarch handling the Wii U version. Two years later, the studio released Call of Duty: Black Ops III, their first game built for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. In 2018, Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII was released, marking the first entry in the series focused entirely on multiplayer. In the months that followed, Treyarch concentrated on supporting the game, rolling out a series of expansions through the season pass along with various updates.

The first hints about the next game in the series popped up in February 2020, and it later emerged that Treyarch was developing it alongside Raven Software. Following months of rumors and leaks suggesting a reboot of the Black Ops “subseries,” fans finally got official confirmation in August. Titled Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War, the game transported players to an alternate take on the Cold War. Even though it continued the original Black Ops story, you needn't have played the first game to follow along. The game officially launched on November 13, 2020, following a period of beta testing. It was released on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, receiving generally positive reviews from critics. Just a few days later, Activision revealed that it was the biggest digital launch in the series’ history - though they didn’t share any concrete sales figures.

Under Microsoft's control

In October 2023, Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard, which included the Treyarch team among others. The first project Treyarch worked on under Microsoft’s ownership was Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, which takes place just after the end of the Cold War. The game was made for PC as well as eighth- and ninth-generation consoles, featuring a story campaign, a multiplayer mode, and the cooperative Zombies mode.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launched on PC and consoles on October 25, 2024. While the game got mixed reviews from players on Steam, critics were more positive, giving it an average score of 83/100 on Metacritic. Gamers quickly jumped on board; just a few days after launch, it was reported that CoD BO6 had become "the biggest Call of Duty launch in history," setting a new record for day-one player numbers.