Call of Duty 2014 developer Sledgehammer Games is on a recruitment drive right now, and the job postings have revealed several potential new features we could see in this year’s edition.

The shooter’s visuals are said to be a pretty big jump over Call of Duty: Ghosts’, and that it’s a next-gen first development.

The new job posts appeared on Gamasutra’s jobs hub, and perhaps the most interesting position is for a temporary VFX Artist at the Californian studio.

The role descriptor reads, “The candidates will have the opportunity to contribute in various areas of in-game effects including but not excluding weaponry effects, vehicle destruction, large-scaled rigid body simulations and environmental effects such as fire, smoke, water, and weather system.”

It seems that Activision is keen to optimise PS3 and Xbox 360 hardware as much as possible, according to a line on all the posts that states candidates will need, “At least 2 to 3 years of next-gen visual effects development on console hardware (360, PS3),” and, “Experience with and a good working knowledge of the limitations and expectations of current generation hardware (360, PS3).”

While it’s refreshing to see a studio push for as close to generational parity as possible, it remains to be seen, seeing as Sledgehammer is the first Call of Duty studio to enter into Activision’s new three-year dev cycle. Ideally, this extra year will help the team push tech to new degrees for the series, so it’ll be interesting to see how the company will help last-gen formats keep up.

What’s your take?

Via MP1st.