A portion of a GamesIndustry interview with Sledgehammer co-founder Michael Condrey...

Q: With Call of Duty blowing away everyone's expectations again since last November, have you been able to take a step back and reflect? What has this whole ride been like for you, coming from the Sledgehammer side, and being asked to work on Call of Duty, being asked to step up because Infinity Ward had people leaving?

Michael Condrey: I'm glad you asked. I mean, it has given us a chance to reflect. It was a really remarkable two years and it was a real honor to be a part of it. As you know, Call of Duty sort of transcends entertainment in such a massive way. To think we had a chance to play a part in that. The developers at all the studios involved, in particular Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer, I can't tell you how much passion and dedication was poured into making this the absolutely best game possible. To have it be received well by the fans, to see that sort of interest, the level of engagement…man, it's rewarding beyond words. Was it exciting/challenging/harrowing for two years? Absolutely, the bar was higher than ever. For Sledgehammer Games in particular, a brand new studio, our coming out, if you will - our reputation was going to in some ways be built on how well this game was received.

Now we have a chance to sit back with a humble pride, be pretty thankful. Now we're in the DLC season and continue to support it, and we have people that are really very vocal about what they want to be doing more of and less of, and we have that dialogue, which a lot of games don't have. A lot I've worked on in the past, I worked hard and am proud of what I did in the past, but the community just wasn't there. This is a fantastic community, so yeah this has been a special run for Sledgehammer Games, absolutely.

Q: Have you thought about what might be possible with next-gen Call of Duty? The Wii U is going to be out later this year and beyond that Sony and Microsoft will have something in 2013. Does that kind of get your creative juices flowing about what the technology would allow you to do?

Michael Condrey: Yeah, it's interesting. With every generation, you get to into that place in your current generation where you're really efficient with your hardware; you finally know how to maximize the hardware and technology. That's a really great place to be for a developer because you get to focus on the "what," like really the creative iteration of the "what" in the game and less on the "how" and that's nice. With any generational leap, early on in the cycle you start to focus on the how. "How do I get to do this on the hardware?" because you're learning it and it provides a challenge. At the same time, it's exciting. It offers new innovations and more horsepower and all of those things. It's sort of having one foot in each. In some ways I'm like "Man, what we've got right now is really amazing and really powerful, we know what we're doing and we can create and iterate better than before."

What's coming next is super exciting. I was in presentation a couple weeks ago, and it reminded me. They are calling this the eighth generation. The next generation will be called generation 8; there have been eight hardware transitions and with each one it brings unique opportunities and challenges. I think the future for the industry is exciting, but at the same time I'm really proud of what we've done with this one.