At a Morgan Stanley TMT conference in Barcelona, the chief executive of Activision Blizzard parent company Vivendi said there was nothing to worry about in its handling of the Call of Dutyfranchise. The Financial Times (registration required) reports that when questioned about the long-term viability of the franchise, Jean-Brenard Levy, chairman of Vivendi, said that its current development teams would be just as successful as the classic Infinity Ward.

“The Treyarch studio, which made this year’s game, has done better than what Infinity Ward could achieve a year ago,” Mr Lévy said. “We have reconstructed Infinity Ward, we are very happy with the way we have been able to reconstruct it.”

“We also have a third studio, which was created a year and a half ago, called Sledgehammer, which is working on Call of Duty properties. We believe this set-up of studios. . . has demonstrated it can do very well, for sure,” he continued.

Since the loss of Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella, a number of senior employees followed the duo to their new start-up at Respawn Entertainment. Some were concerned about the strength of the franchise, but Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops destroyedModern Warfare 2’s previous records, making Activision quite happy.

“Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for two consecutive years across all forms of entertainment,” said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick at the same event. “The title’s success illustrates the mass appeal of interactive entertainment as millions of consumers are choosing to play Call of Duty: Black Ops at unprecedented levels rather than engage in other forms of media. The number of people playing online and the number of hours they are playing demonstrates how online gaming has become a mainstream form of entertainment and certainly validates Activision Blizzard’s leadership role in online entertainment.”

The next title in the franchise is expected at the end of 2011. It was being developed by the newest third pillar of the Call of Duty team, Sledgehammer Games.

[Thanks Gamasutra]