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Infinity Ward: Activision Wanted More World War II, 'Did Not Want Modern Warfare'
by Nick Breckon, Oct 07, 2009 1:01am PDTWhile the decision to branch off from World War II PC shooters and create the Modern Warfare franchise seems a no-brainer in hindsight, developer Infinity Ward now says that its owner Activision was against the idea from the start, deeming the idea "risky" and requesting more games set in the 1940s.
"With Call of Duty 2, we were dead set against it being World War 2," said Infinity Ward chief Vince Zampella to Official PlayStation Magazine, according to CVG.
"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," he said. "We always wanted to be on consoles and Activision saw us as more of a PC developer."
"And something I'll add to that, Activision also did not want Modern Warfare. They thought working on a modern game was risky and [thought], '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."
"We had to fight for everything," added Infinity Ward's Jason West. "They wanted it to be World War 2. Again."
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Also, this helps illustrate how influential IW is. b/c thats a pretty serious change they went with there.
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good business decisions might not make the small gaming crowd we call Shackers happy all the time.
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I know it's a safe bet, but I can't believe how stupid big companies are. Even if there is a moderate increase in income and you can milk it till it's dried up it causes a giant burn out. Alot of hardcore gamers in recent years have started losing interest in the gaming industry because of these strategies (myself included). We see almost nothing new or ingenious and get bored of the same old shit. Then the game companies wonder why it's not pulling in the same numbers anymore and throw more of the logic big companies use in other industries at it - turn up the quality of the product. In this case they add more people to make things look fancier, brighter, and shinier, but that doesn't fix the problem at all. Better graphics wont fix shotty gameplay, crappy storyline, and poor thought up game mechanics.
I applaud infinity ward for fighting up stream as a few smaller companies that get swallowed by bigger ones are doing! That is the only way anything amazing will ever be born again. The next iteration in the same franchise is just going to be the same BS with a slightly different twist. Even Blizzard has started doing this with D3 and SC2.
Safe bets are not always the BEST bets. Investors need to relearn how to invest rather then stare at pie-charts and look for statistically sound methods of increasing their wealth. If the numbers are doing all the work for them they really have no purpose.
He's an utter PoS and his recent comments and the subsequent price gouging made me to cancel my MW2 preorder (and most likely I won't buy it later either.)
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How fucked is your publisher if they think it's really risky to do a FPS set in the present? Unbelievable.
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OTOH, why spend the time to actually think :)
Good on Infinity Ward from breaking from the mold and including a GREAT story as part of their FPS ... good job guys.
Hopefully their 3rd game won't turn into a BOOBfest and pixsex adventurama (you listening BioWare?!)
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Besides, it has been DONE TO DEATH and I do not blame IW for going with 'Modern Warfare' again, they are right in doing so. Don't believe me?
Look at this : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_video_games
Enough god damn WW2 already! Thanks!
When KISS wanted to stop wearing makeup in 1983 their record label was against it. They went on to sell millions.
When James Cameron wanted to make Titanic his movie company was against it. He went on to make millions.
When JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book she submitted it to twelve publishing houses that rejected it. She's made over a billion dollars on that character since then.
Point being: Who cares if Activision was against it. If COD4 was the first COD game that hadn't sold then they'd be right. They did allow it to be made so it's not like they blocked it entirely. Furthermore, it would almost make more sense to have the modern game be in a different franchise entirely (so that all COD games were WW2) but they did it anyway.
Did you know that the movie Halloween III doesn't have the Michael Myers character in it at all? They decided they wanted to switch gears and not just do a ton of Michael Myers movies. It bombed miserably and they went right back to Michael Myers movies.
The new Max Payne game looks to be taking the series in a different direction and everyone seems to hate it.
If Far Cry 2 was an actual sequel to Far Cry I think most people would have skipped it.
Activision may be evil but they're not stupid. They were wrong that COD4 wouldn't sell but since COD5 sold a ton as well I'd say they were ultimately right in that WW2 wasn't played out.
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http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/12/5/
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The fact that Activision are the most successful of the publishers goes to prove that despite all the comments here, they have been very successful at what they do, which is to make money from publishing video games.
Their decisions are made because we the consumer continue to buy the software they release, and when a title sells well, they look at the formula for that title and reproduce more the same, standard business sense.
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The guy is a cancer on the gaming industry. His attitude of short term profits highlights the problem with upper management and why this country is in financial dire straights at the moment.
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LOL! :)
Not buying this anymore. Get your sales elsewhere.
If I see another WW2 shooter, I'm gonna drop. And that they now raise the prices to 94 US Dollar in Euro places! No fucking thanks.
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PC version delayed 11/25/09
:P
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You have to admit COD4 added a huge amount on the multiplayer side compared with all the COD's before it and had a much more cinematic singleplayer experience. Greater production value played a key role in its success coupled with the growing fan base of COD 1,2 and 3.
Really surprised at his candor.
Activision, go suck a nut.
Call of Duty: Best World War II Game, Goddamnit Now Can We Please Have Another Genre?
Activision's answer: No.
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Mess with Diablo 3 Activision and I'll hunt you down and kill you. o____o
I can always blame video games for it.
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