Sledgehammer Games have formally announced that they'll be opening a brand new studio in Melbourne, Australia, with their first new hire, producer Alayna Cole, confirming the news via Twitter.

It seems that, while this is the first time it's come to public attention, historic job postings on LinkedIn demonstrate this has been in the works for nearly three years now. The official Sledgehammer Games website currently has a listing for five vacancies at the new studio.

Melbourne and Australia in general has been home to many major studios in the past, such as THQ or 2K Australia, and Sega Studios Australia. Quite a lot of these studios have closed in recent years, though, it's great to see that more big players are returning to the country.

It's not clear what the new Melbourne studio will be working on, but it's likely they'll be involved in something Call of Duty related down the line, we imagine. Stay tuned to GameFront for more on that as we learn it.