Speaking to Official PlayStation Magazine, Infinity Ward’s boss said that Activision did not believe in Infinity Ward’s concept for a modern Call of Duty setting and was actively working to demonstrate the idea wouldn’t succeed.
Vince Zampella, IW’s chief, said the studio had wanted to do a modern combat shooter for years, and bring their work to consoles, but Activision resisted on both. For its part, Infinity Ward held its nose to do Call of Duty 2 in a World War II setting, but went through with it just to get access to console development.
“We were dead set against it being World War II,” Zampella said, “but Activision really wanted it, the compromise sort of being that we’d get some dev kits for consoles in exchange for doing a World War 2 game … We always wanted to be on consoles and Activision saw us as more of a PC developer.”
When it came time to do Call of Duty 4, “Activision also did not want Modern Warfare. They thought working on a modern game was risky and ‘Oh my God you can’t do that, it’s crazy!’ They were doing market research to show us we were wrong the whole time,” Zampella said.
“We had to fight for everything,” said Jason West, the Call of Duty project lead for Infinity Ward.
We all know the outcome of this unhappy marriage: Modern Warfare sold 14 million copies on rave reviews and has a vociferously loyal player base. Its sequel is one of the most highly anticipated games of the year. And the World War II setting, no matter how well executed, is perceived by many as derivative and overdone.
Michael Ormando
October 7, 2009 at 1:43 PM
haha activision you idiots. imagine they passed on cod4 and another publisher released it. boy would they be pissed
Report PermalinkdoubleDizz
October 7, 2009 at 2:06 PM
Proof Activision is full of morons.
But what I really want to know, is who didn’t think A LOCAL SEARCH FUNCTION IN MULTIPLAYER was a good idea?
Because whoever that muppet was, managed to get his way in COD:MW2 now as well.
ATTN: ACTIVISION – RE: MP LOCAL SEARCH IN COD:MW2
BODY: GET ON IT!
Kind Regards,
doubleDizz.
Report PermalinkRiavan
October 7, 2009 at 4:11 PM
I concur.
Report PermalinkSam Batty
October 7, 2009 at 2:18 PM
Shows how useless stuff like Market Research is. And so much money is spent on this crap. I know, I did some market research on market research.
But to a greater extent, it shows how useless activision are as a publisher.
Report PermalinkSteve
October 7, 2009 at 3:04 PM
While sales put me in a vast minority, I’ve never had any interest in playing Modern Combat nor its upcoming sequel. I don’t doubt that it’s as well-made as it’s made out to be, but the setting just holds no appeal for me. I enjoyed World At War thanks to a setting that spoke to my interests far more.
Report PermalinkJason Ranieri
October 7, 2009 at 5:44 PM
@steve
lol Modern Combat …. FAIL
Report Permalinkk'Fox
October 7, 2009 at 11:11 PM
Note to Self: If Activision objects to something and everyone else loves it… then it really must be good!
Report PermalinkTB
October 11, 2009 at 7:12 PM
A publisher turned out to be dead wrong about a developer’s idea? Next you guys will be telling me the Pope’s a Catholic, and that bears defecate in the woods.
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