Flashback to over a decade ago: you couldn’t move in a newsagent without seeing a video game magazine that had ‘Halo/Mario/GTA killer’ as a massive coverline spread across an image of some new video game. The idea of one game ‘killing’ another was embedded deep in the lexicon of gamers and the gaming press back in the day. To the extent that, in development, the very first Call of Duty was actively being referred to as ‘Medal of Honor Killer’ early in development, reports MCV.
That was what the game was actually called. That was its placeholder name in the beginning.
“The project was actually named ‘MOH killer’ until an official name could be found,” explained former Infinity Ward artist Justin Thomas.
The original Call of Duty was actually developed by many of the folks who worked on the Medal of Honor franchise all those years ago so, in that sense, the title made sense.
“We were focused more on fun than success,” Thomas continued, “with the idea that if it was fun, it would be successful. We were just going to make a great game, and do the things better than we did on previous projects. The great thing is that a team learns from previous projects.”
It’s funny how that idea has been so prevalent in video games — since the beginning really. I remember the flood of games designed to be ‘Street Fighter II killers’. The games designed to be ‘Mario killers’. Then ‘Halo killers’ was the big thing. The idea of video game series’ being designed to ‘kill’ others has sort of faded from consciousness — we don’t really say it out loud anymore — but the idea behind it persists. Games tend to ape others, publishers demand ‘their’ version of the video game selling millions of units. It’s a funny old business.
Comments
20 responses to “Call Of Duty Was Called ‘Medal Of Honor Killer’ In Development”
Now Call of Duty is called “creativity killer”.
Commence hateful replies!
+1
+1 also.
Realistically, there’s not much they can do to ‘freshen up’ COD. It sells that way it does because it *is* predictable and sticks to a formula people enjoy. You’d be surprised by how people react to change when it’s something they’ve done the same way for years. It’s the same hole that Apple has fallen into with its iPhone/iPad: small iterations on a well known formula, continues to sell millions of units, same walled garden for the last 6 years. Don’t expect that to change.
Games like Titanfall and Destiny is where the innovation and creativity will come (to some degree), in the short term at least, until they too fall into the same hole if they’re successful enough.
I hate that I have no problem with this comment.
Couldn’t agree more. Pretty much the same game year in, year out. Why change something that makes so much money?
Actually have no problems with this so i guess its a +1 from me too.
The problem with cod is, its the same game with different skins. Ive finished every CoD game there was until MW2 came along. Then the time i spent playing multi and singleplayer started to get shorter and shorter. To the point where the last few titles have just gathered dust on the shelf.
The upside? Because there are people out there that buy the game like iLemmings with the iPhones the resale is great on trades. It isnt the AAA title it used to be. Its just become the crappy little brother to Battlefield
Even today the first Call of Duty game is ace. As remains the Medal of Honor titles they worked on before becoming Infinity Ward.
Does that mean Titanfalls working title was COD Killer?
Probably not. If it was being released across all platforms, maybe it’d have a chance. Who knows what they refer to it as internally.
And here come the hate comments based on COD’s reputation in this generation of gaming…
Mission accomplished..
All these games are so focussed on killing other games. VIDEOGAMES PROMOTE KILLING AND VIOLENCE!
CoD cops way too much flak these days – For what it’s worth it’s pretty much done it’s job MoH is way behind CoD now in just about every way shape and form.
CoD does continue to evolve but people seem to have this strange idea it’s awesomely cool to bag out games that do wel, it’s almost ironic that it seems to be the kids with the high pitch voices that annoy you on the game before you mute them being the ones to vocally bag the game on forums too 😛
The majority of people who bag CoD are adults that grew up with what cod offers now, in 1996. We called it Goldeneye.
This! Your laser guided hammer hit the nail square on the head with that. Definitely scored a golf clap from me with that.
I think you have lost touch with what CoD has to offer then.
Golden Eye fun as it may have been has terrible mechanics, movement/gun options or diversity/graphics/VERY POOR BALANCE/additional content such as spec ops, Zombies and the newest mode coming out with Ghosts.
I see a lot of people who continually throw out complaints but still everytime I have someone over to play split screen they always make the comment “oh wow so cod actually has come far from when I played it last”
Most of them being players who quit after MW2.
Personally I think MW3 was mediocre at best but Blackops 2 along with BF3 (now 4) are best multiplayer FPS’s to date.
Hehe, good to see they were rippling with fresh ambition and new, industry-defining ideas right from the beginning 😉
I never really got into MOH so it’s strange remembering that it was once the benchmark for what was then essentially the ‘WWII Shooter’ genre. It’s also kinda funny to think that CoD has only been around for a bit over a generation (COD 2 was on the 360 FFS!) given that the series is about 15 games deep now.
I remember the 1st MOH on Ps1, damn that was good and when MOHAA came out that changed the game, it was a total saving private ryan rip off.
I really wish that did something like COD The Somme, or COD Verdun that would mix it up with a WW1 setting. Bolt action, shotguns and pistols 🙂
I get bored very quickly with FPSs, especially when they come out in annual releases, but I loved the first CoD and also the first MoH back in the PSOne days. Remember when a new MoH came out pretty much each year during the PS2/XBox era as well as PC? The same will eventually happen to CoD.
If only there were more people that paid attention to this and did not dismiss 90% of the team after completing a project. It’s been one of my major gripes about the industry in general that skills and knowledge acquired on a project are seen as throw-away things by… whoever it is that makes those decisions.
Ironically enough though is that Call of Duty has become the Call of Duty ‘Killer.’