Activision Leeds to develop "handheld games" in the Call of Duty franchise

Mastertronic boss Andy Payne has said Activision's studio in Leeds will be in charge of "handheld games" in the Call of Duty franchise, suggesting the firm will be developing all mobile titles in the franchise going forward.

Speaking with Videogamer, Payne said: "Activision are like a machine. I have to be careful what I say about these guys because I know them so well and they'll cane me.

"But Activision are a machine," he continued. "They're very good, and you know what, what people don't realise with Activision is, the two studios working on the Call of Duty franchise are collaborative studios. That's unheard of. All the assets are reusable, so they're not wasting time. And those assets are also going to be starting to be used by the mobile team, which is going to be based in Leeds."

Established in November 2011, the studio was formed to develop "projects based on Activision's brands," and recently the studio hired ex-Rockstar UK bosses Mark Washbrook and Mark Lloyd. Back in May, it hired Team 17 co-founder Martyn Brown to run it.

Activision has yet to respond to Payne's comments, or on the hiring of the ex-Rockstar London bosses, but Payne's comments seem to confirm the later as well.

"They kind of always wanted to get the Rockstar team," he said. "Well it's smart, because Britain's pretty ahead in mobile programming. We're pretty good at it. Yet again, we're good at it but we don't talk about it too much because we're British."