The Call of Duty franchise has always had a following, originally because of the game’s extreme realism in a setting plagued with mediocrity. The series has sold over 35million units, and the sequel to the fourth main installment in the series is one of the most anticipated game releases this year. Well the game might not be where it is today if it were up to Activision.
According to studio head Vince Zampella, Activision tried holding back Infinity Ward. It would seem that Infinity Ward never wanted to make the second game set in World War 2. They wanted a modern setting and wanted to develop games for consoles.
Activision wanted nothing to do with it. “We always wanted to be on consoles and Activision saw us as more of a PC developer,” Zampella said. They wanted another World War 2 game for the PC. The compromise they reached was that, in exchange for some console SDKs, they made another WWII game.
So when time came to make Infinity Ward’s third game the same issue presented itself. Activision did studies to try and persuade Infinity Ward away from making a modern war FPS. “We had to fight for everything,” said COO of Infinity Ward, Jason West. “They wanted it to be World War 2. Again.”
The results speak for themselves, with Modern Warfare being a phenomenal hit, selling more than 13 million units and being a critical success. If Activision had their way we’d still be in Germany fighting Nazis, and Brutal Legend would be a Guitar Hero rip off. Viva La Revolución!
[...] for their Call of Duty games. However doing so limits their creative talents. Just recently an article was posted regarding how Activision wanted to have another WW2 Call of Duty instead of going [...]