[7][8] After founding Sledgehammer Games on July 21, 2009, Schofield and Condrey made Activision a proposal: they would attempt to replicate their success with Dead Space, with a third-person spin-off of the Call of Duty franchise.

Schofield and Condrey accepted, viewing Activision's independent studio model as an opportunity to preserve the company's creative culture, development methodology and staff, while having the security of an alliance with the industry's largest publisher.

[8][9][10] Sledgehammer Games spent six to eight months working on the Call of Duty project in 2009, enough to produce a prototype with about 15 minutes of play.

"It was a massive risk for Schofield and Condrey's new studio, and one that most outside of the industry never considered", wrote Ryan Fleming in Digital Trends.

"The Infinity Ward name was the marquis on the Modern Warfare franchise, but failure to deliver on Activision's golden egg would have resulted in a wave that crippled those in its path.

"[8] The collaboration with Infinity Ward marked the first time a co-development relationship would produce a Modern Warfare title, with both companies' logos appearing on the packaging.

Despite the companies’ differing histories and development methodologies, GamesTM called the arrangement "a rare symbiotic relationship for such a high-profile game".

[17] In December 2018, Condrey subsequently left Activision to start a career with 2K Games in the Bay Area with 31st Union.

[18] In 2019, while working with Raven Software on Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, the 2020 entry in the series, the two teams had differing ideas on the game.

The tradition dates back to a World War I practice of giving soldiers coins with a squadron's insignia that could be used to prove membership.