Infinity Ward upheaval made Call of Duty 'better future proofed'

Infinity Ward executive producer Mark Rubin says that the dramatic shift actually benefited the company and the brand by better preparing the studio for the rigors of next-gen development.

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When Infinity Ward co-founders West and Zampella left Activision, they took a large chunk of the team with them. That forced Activision to pair the remnants of the team with Sledgehammer Games to co-develop Modern Warfare 3. At the end of the day, Infinity Ward executive producer Mark Rubin says that the dramatic shift actually benefited the company and the brand by better preparing the studio for the rigors of next-gen development.

"I think we are better future proofed for making Call of Duty going forward," Rubin said. "And we may or may not have done this if not for that [tumultuous] event."

"Games are getting harder to make and they're taking bigger and bigger budgets and bigger teams," Rubin points out. And to make a new COD game every other year must certainly take its toll. "The previous games were all very insular, and that's not really possible now. Working with outside studios like Sledgehammer was a difficult transition but now we've gotten past that learning phase."

Ultimately, having Infinity Ward go through its upheaval forced the company to learn how to work with others. "It forced our hand to go down that route, which in the long run turned out to be good for us. I think we are much more capable now of doing these big projects," Rubin told GI.biz. Now, Infinity Ward co-develops their games with a number of partners, including Raven and Neversoft

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 7, 2013 5:15 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Infinity Ward upheaval made Call of Duty 'better future proofed'.

    Infinity Ward executive producer Mark Rubin says that the dramatic shift actually benefited the company and the brand by better preparing the studio for the rigors of next-gen development.

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      August 7, 2013 5:44 PM

      "We actually didn't make that big of a deal about the dog - it was just in a trailer and all of a sudden the internet blew up and made the dog became this sensation... People are so in love with the dog. They're already emotionally invested. It's amazing how many Twitter messages I get saying - in all caps - if you guys kill the dog, I will never play another...and I'm like, ooh, you're emotionally attached..."

      What?! Umm, no, I think you need to listen a little more to the cynical side of the "Call of Duty Dog" section.

      Also note that Infinity Ward is refusing to acknowledge the current state of the FPS subgenre: there's them and DICE making the same damn game, there's the ashes of all the studios that tried (and failed) to ape that same style, there's Valve who doesn't seem to want to talk about FPS games beyond TF2, there's Id Software in constant denial that Rage was a dud... and that's about it. It's almost like the adventure game genre in the early 2000's, in the aftershocks of post-Myst genre destruction. My interest in video games skyrocketed when I first saw Doom, and got my hands on Doom 2 and Quake... and now I feel like I want to dump the entire FPS genre as a lost cause that has jumped the shark.

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        August 8, 2013 6:48 AM

        With all due respect do you actually believe CoD and BF are the same game?

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          August 8, 2013 7:00 AM

          Soldiers + guns = same game

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          August 8, 2013 7:09 AM

          Ask all the BF fans who say that 2 and 2142 were the best, and that 3 aped the Bad Company and Call of Duty formulas. They said it, not me.

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            August 8, 2013 7:11 AM

            I'd laugh at anyone who said 2142 was the best. That's the one they tried to put ads in.

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          August 8, 2013 8:25 AM

          They're the same game in the way that Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament were the same game. When your non-gamer friend walks in the room and can't tell the difference, they're "the same game"

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            August 8, 2013 8:48 AM

            I would compare the difference more to Unreal Tournament and Tribes. Q3 and UT were more similar than these games are imo.

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      August 7, 2013 5:44 PM

      Here's how we make one of the biggest boneheaded moves in the history of the industry sound better.

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        August 7, 2013 5:52 PM

        Hahaha, I deleted my original post of "this is such a puff piece" before I made the one above. I'm glad you agree, because man, this really is a puff piece. August is far too early in the Call of Duty PR Cycle to introduce anything of substance (September is multiplayer season, and October is PC details season, as well as rough DLC plan details), so the lead guy chats up a "games journalist" and delivers a completely substance-free PR missive.

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          August 7, 2013 6:18 PM

          Its not out of the question. Theres plenty of examples of studios that lost key members and became better studios for it. Rebirth by cleansing fire.

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      August 8, 2013 12:59 AM

      CoD sucks - you heard it here first, folks! Now go play better games.

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        August 8, 2013 1:25 AM

        Don't believe I've ever played a Call of Duty game that "sucked."

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          August 8, 2013 6:25 AM

          CoD is basically a turret shooter. You walk down a linear hallway and play wack-a-mole as fast as possible without getting 0wned too quickly. Every once in a while, you will duck behind a crate because it is not A Man's Shooter, and you can recover health by hiding like a coward.

          I once watched a hardcore CoD'er try to play through A Man's Shooter called the Black Mesa mod. Can't you guys explore a bit? Not every game is a linear hallway turret shooter. Line up your shots. You don't have to play wack-a-mole in these games!

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cvd8ptFcsO8#t=1538s

          You guys stick with your CoD games. You are terrible at Good Games.

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            August 8, 2013 8:35 AM

            I've never managed to get through a CoD SP campaign...they're purely multiplayer games for me...basically a less annoying CS (but neither is good enough to lick Quake's asshole...or even Unreal Tournament's asshole...or Tribes' rectum).

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        August 8, 2013 2:56 AM

        None of them are bad. They are all solid FPS games, it's just the same thing every year and it's had its time. It would be nice to see something new or even something that wasn't a Modern day shooter.

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        August 8, 2013 6:07 AM

        Thank you for this constructive comment. This thread and the Shacker community as a whole is better because of it. Please continue to contribute in such a thoughtful and productive way.

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      August 8, 2013 6:02 AM

      Do they not realise most people were being sarcastic about the dog?

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        August 8, 2013 9:43 AM

        Haha I don't think they do given their comments.

        They don't get the internet I guess.

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      August 8, 2013 6:03 AM

      tl;dr- "It made it really easy for us to setup a factory line"

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      August 8, 2013 9:42 AM

      Yeah because Vince and company that left wanted to do something other than CoD (likely early ideas of Titanfall) and so getting rid of them means more milking the franchise.

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