Treyarch Corporation (pronounced TRAY-ark; formerly Treyarch Invention LLC) is an American video game developer located in Los Angeles. It also has other studios in Vancouver, Canada, and Austin, Texas. The company was founded in 1996 by Peter Akemann and Doğan Köslü. In 2001, Activision bought Treyarch Corporation. The studio is well known for creating games in the Call of Duty series, which it develops together with Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, and Raven Software.

History

Treyarch was founded in 1996 as Treyarch Inventions and was bought by Activision in 2001. In 2005, Gray Matter Studios was combined with Treyarch.

At the 2007 Leipzig Games Convention, Activision announced that Treyarch would be one of three developers working on its first James Bond-based game, 007: Quantum of Solace. The game was released on October 31, 2008, in Europe and November 4, 2008, in North America. Vicarious Visions created the Nintendo DS version, and Eurocom created the PlayStation 2 version. Treyarch is a major developer in the Call of Duty series.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II held the record for the biggest entertainment launch in history until it was surpassed by Grand Theft Auto V. Worldwide sales of the game reached US$650 million within five days of its release. Treyarch worked on the Wii U version of Call of Duty: Ghosts to improve its performance on the console.

Another Call of Duty developer, Sledgehammer Games, was originally chosen to lead the 2020 game but faced internal conflicts with co-developer Raven Software. This led Activision to assign Treyarch as co-developer alongside Raven Software for the game. The game was later named Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Raven Software handled the game's story mode, while Treyarch led the development of the multiplayer and Zombies mode.

Dan Bunting, who had been co-lead of Treyarch since about 2003, was mentioned in an investigative report by The Wall Street Journal related to a lawsuit filed by the state of California against Activision Blizzard for workplace misconduct and discrimination. Bunting was reportedly involved in mistreating an employee in 2017 but remained employed by Activision Blizzard's CEO, Bobby Kotick. After The Wall Street Journal began its investigation, Bunting was fired.

On August 18, 2023, studio design director David Vonderhaar announced he would leave the studio after 18 years.

Game engines

In 2008, Treyarch began using the IW engine, a game engine developed by Infinity Ward, another Call of Duty studio. Treyarch used the IW 3.0 version of the engine for the games 007: Quantum of Solace (2008), Call of Duty: World at War (2008), Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010), and Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012). When the eighth generation of video game consoles was introduced, Treyarch made many changes and upgrades to the engine for Call of Duty: Black Ops III in 2015. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018) included a new "Super Terrain" system and supported up to 100 players. For Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020), Treyarch upgraded the engine again to prepare for the ninth generation of video game consoles.

With the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II in 2022, Treyarch worked together with Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games to create a new engine, called IW 9.0, for future games in the series. This shared engine allowed Treyarch to introduce a new movement system called "Omnimovement" for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in 2024. The game also included improvements to audio features. The IW 9.0 engine is also used in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, released in 2025.