Infinity Ward discusses leaving Modern Warfare behind
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Developer says it was "not a hard decision, but a long decision."
Some may have been surprised when Infinity Ward's latest project was announced as Call of Duty: Ghosts and not the rumored Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4.
Infinity Ward executive producer Mark Rubin explained the studio's thinking process regarding moving on from the series in a new interview with MCV.
"Not a hard decision, but a long decision," Rubin said. "We don't get a chance when making a game to think about the next one until we are done actually making that first game."
"So when we finished Modern Warfare 3, we had this big brainstorming session that lasted for weeks," he added. "Everybody gets to come up with ideas of what we want to do, not just what game we want to do, but moments in games."
Rubin explained that the entire studio knew it wanted to continuing making Call of Duty games, even though it could have made something else. He said the team wanted to build a new universe, with new characters and experiences.
"The easy thing would have been--as we had finished the arc of Modern Warfare 1, 2, and 3--to start a new arc within that same universe. That was the first step," Rubin said. "But due to a lot of the changes we wanted to make with this new world, it really dictated out that we needed to make something that wasn't Modern Warfare."
The result is Call of Duty: Ghosts, the latest entry in the hit shooter series and one that is being billed as having a more emotional storyline. Infinity Ward has tapped Academy Award-winning Traffic and Syriana author Stephen Gaghan to write the game's script.
Call of Duty: Ghosts will launch later this year for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, as well as the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
See more coverage of the PS4 » See more coverage of the Xbox One »
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
344 comments
At first when I read the title of the article I thought Activision meant that they were going to stop making Call of Duty and move onto something else.... Oh well....
Activision treats its workers as expandable resources. this is why all COD games are the same output, expandable resources. but so far none of the cod games failed in terms of sales, so that's why it's so profitable. activision went rogue and is lazy beyond belief. they just fire they devs, and order the new ones to copy and paste, and in result gain billions of dollars, which double and triple each year. this is the definition of a corporation which evolved into an entity of destruction of gaming industry.
@Max_160 At the end of the day, activision is a publishing company and like any company, all they want is profit. And yes, of course they say that their primary objective is to make quality games, but that is just PR bs. All companies have one top priority, and that is reaching their expected quotas at the end of the quarter. Activision is no exception. Anything else, such as: "quality games" "making good products" "making fans happy"are not even secondary objectives and if they exist its only because of the primary incentive, which is to make more money. Since their COD series make them so much money, their company policy seems to be: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. COD is always a safe bet, so don't expect any new COD games to stray too far from flock.
i am shocked with infinity ward studio, how young everybody is and how poor are the structure and everything.... so that`s the reason call of duty is such a poor game.
Call of Duty is too lucrative for Infinity Ward to drop. As long as it makes money, they will never stop releasing them and they definitely won't change anything. The graphics may get slightly better, but the bugs and annoyances will never change.
1 Like how is CoD:Ghosts innovative when it pretty much takes the ghost unit from Ghost Recon.
@MegaX- I'm also pissed off they're still using the same quake III engine from the 2004 CoD albeit heavily modified. They said at first Ghosts would use a whole new engine and then revealed it was a full blown lie. They've just added new textures and other crap such as "better curves" lmfao. Talk about lazy.
@fitch129http://www.memearcade.com/Funny/COD-Ghosts-Has-One-Of-The-Most-Realistic/725
They also did this LMAO. Pathetic.
1 Like At first I thought the title was Infinity ward discusses leaving CoD behind, silly me they can still make money releasing basically the same thing over and over again.
2 Like I think "Call of Duty" should end rather. It used to be a title for WW2 games, and there have been so fundamental gameplay changes, that they should consider just making a new IP with similar controls, but no. "Call of Duty" appeals to the masses, and they definitely wont admit that the only thing spectacular about the new entries in the series is the money they put into production values. If you cut out all that mindnumbing setpiece bullcrap there is just a fun but very, very generic shooter left.
CoD has always been the most overrated franchise in history of gaming and ghosts wont do much to change that. "oooh we've got a movie-writer on board, OooOooh it's going to be so good" no. Usually people from the other mediums think gaming is on a lower pedestal and they severely underestimate their audiences, as has been proven by the stupid VGA awards from year to year.
I don't give a crap about CoD anymore. I thought Modern Warfare was good, no need to repeat success until it has been beaten to death, and honestly Ghosts seems to be just another MW but with a new skin.
2 Like "Im angry at this", "im angry at that", "They say this every year, then release the same"......You're all whining about it yet you'll still buy it. Same as me lol. Though i do still say WaW was the best CoD ever made.
2 Like Don't they say this like every time they are releasing a new Call of Duty? That they are "changing" things and "taking it in different directions" only for it to be rinse repeat. How about you guys just take a break and make something else entirely?
@Cordliss i agree. the article said the studio could have made a game that was not CoD, but they still wanted to make CoD. Yeah...because theres essentially zero risk involved with a CoD game, it will be a success.
But I would like to see what the studio is actually capable of and see them create a brand new IP, and outside of the FPS realm. Oh well.
2 Like its about freaking time. they should leave Cod behind completely and start fresh with a new IP and see how well it does without the Call of Duty name.
I don't get all this CoD hate. True, the last CoD I played was CoD2, which was great (although MoHs were better back then) but let me get this straight, are you all angry they make games that sell? There is that aspect of other devs copying CoD and destroying their IPs but that's entirely their own fault.
@theend3r The reason that they sell is because they have made the games so easy to pick up and play. When you pick up a game of battlefield it isn't always as action packed and the leveling system takes longer. Due to this many "noobs" if you will, prefer CoD. But if you plan on spending more than a day's playing time on it you should consider battlefield because the gameplay is much more thought out and the ways to play are considerably more diverse than CoD.
Plus, we're all angry at IW because they are lazy. They don't work to provide real innovations to the game. I mean think about it, MW3 had a new killstreak system. Beyond that, It was just a retouched map pack. And MW2 was a big step, but that comes with a few years of understanding how to exploit the new consoles for all they're worth.
All in all, CoD is running on fumes at this point. Not sales wise, at least not yet. If the gameplay doesn't drastically improve, I'm afraid the only decision being made will be away from infinity ward. For the gaming community this decision will not be a hard decision, but a long decision.
3 Like The only thing frustrating to me about this is that Activision has turned Call of Duty into a Madden franchise - a new game every year with slight improvements. Some people like Madden, and there's bound to be some crossover here. But, personally, I feel saturated with Call of Duty games and need a break. It would be nice to see a Call of Duty game every other year instead and maybe Activision take a chance with a new IPO. If not a new IPO, then at least a new game in another of there franchises. How about Double Dribble? Wait, that's Konami....
One could also make the argument that a new CoD comes out every other year by the two studios who have been working on the series (Infinity Ward in odd years, Treyarch in even). However, that's like saying this year, we're getting Hunt's Ketchup instead of Heinz Ketchup. Yeah, they're slightly different, but it's still ketchup. Maybe I want mustard.
Apparently I'm hungry and want to watch basketball...
@theend3r It's ok, all these hater are just the people who don't know how to play CoD & go 2&30.
@BadMrSnake @theend3r
Yeah. Like we gamers (ones who have been gaming since 90's) don't know how to play something as silly as CoD. lol.
How about you come into CS and see what real FPS is like? Oh wait.. there's no health regeneration and gameplay slowing iron sights in CS. Yeah, ofcourse you people rather be with your yearly Madden Call of D(f)ooty(ball) Modern War"feel" 77.
2 Like @theend3r
I'm angry at the fact that the same game gets made year after year, and sells millions because of retards. All this does is encourage them to continue making the same game. I'm not angry at the developers, I'm angry at the so called "gamers" who are incredibly moronic and wonder why gaming gets such a bad stereotype.
lets not forget the shit loads and shit tons of DLC they release throughout the year for each game. I would love to know the total cost of all of the Cod games plus DLC since the first MW. Anyone want to take a stab at it?
So at the final hour & still they're not calling it a day...However,most of u guys,i hope u've seen the 3 trailers from Infinity Ward about the COD:GHOSTS...I just wanna start from there...Their lead animation designer started throwing a new idea that we can now scale through obstacles while sprinting....Sounds good(No.1)..The underwater fishes are reactive,they flee away when players draw close(No.2)...Dynamic MP Maps which introduced falling electric poles tearing up a cop car(No.3)...& so on....Dear IW,what the F****g hell is wrong with u all drained-up talents???Do u think the gamers deserve reactive fishes,obstacle course & f*****g a bit more without something impressive???What do u think the gamers gonna buck some 60 up for ur same titular(COD)& a bit changed sub title(Frm MW to Ghosts)shit????Fuck off....Say gd bye to COD...We/re nt buying ur age old modern craps anymore...Better offer it for a free run...
@Warfighter_971 Calm down babe, im sure theres more new stuff comming. Besides dynamic maps and scaling sound pretty cool and a new engine should add some new stuff for us. btw before you go on another incoherent COD hating rant you may want to change your profile picture to something that has nothing to do with this game lol.
@Robertle419 great question.
it's "leaving" the modern warfare world. creating an entirely new world, characters, story etc. but still apparently a present/near future CoD game, so it's essentially just a renaming of the same stuff.
1 Like Say what you will about the CoD series, BUT remember that it's our own (gamers in general) damned fault anyway. Making AAA games isn't cheap by any means, and any company would want to cash in as much as possible. If you guys had the ability to earn a gajillion dollars selling the same stuff every year with barely any risk, you'll do the same thing too.
@501stormtrooper while i agree with you, i was onboard with CoD at every iteration that actually improved gameplay. CoD 3 was my first, then MW, WaW, and then after that, it was just too much. MW2 was actually my last CoD game but I played it for about a week and then sold it.
My point is that they had me hooked for a bit because each game i owned was very different and continued to make fairly drastic improvements to the gameplay. CoD 3 proved it was the best WWII shooter at the time, MW was a huge leap forward for the series gameplay/graphics/different setting, etc, WaW was essentially MW improvements in the WWII setting which i thoroughly enjoyed, and then after that it just got to be very much the same.
I think the series could still be wildly successful and make a sh*t ton of money, even IF they continued to put the effort into improving and moving forward that they had going for a couple of years there. At this point each new iteration is more of the exact same, hence losing me as a customer. i don't need to buy the same game each year with a different skin, i know i'm not the only one who feels this way.
I would actually buy a CoD game again if it proved to be interesting and an evolution for the series, not just MW re-skinned for the fifth time.
If i was in one of those meetings I would have been definitely for creating a new IP just so people wouldn't shorten my game name and refer to it as a fish
5 Like COD4 was so awesome, new and innovative. Too bad I can't say the same for every COD since then.
1 Like It really doesn't matter as long as you slap Call of Duty on the box it'll sell at least 10 million copies.
3 Like So they leave the same game behind to continue with the same game? What the fuck changes?
This comment has been deleted
.....And it'll be roughly the same from a gameplay perspective, won't it? That's the fundamental issue they're not going to ever be addressing.
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Call of Duty: Ghosts
- Publisher(s): Activision
- Developer(s): Infinity Ward
- Genre: Action
- Release:
- ESRB: M
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