In a new report published by Bloomberg, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 it was completed in less than a year and a halfless than half the 3 years typically required to produce games in the series. developers working nights and weekends To meet deadlines set by Activision Blizzard.
According to Jason Schreier’s sources, these shortened development times are exactly Compromise on final quality It contributed to the negative reviews in the press for the single-player campaign (our exclusive special section here), which, as we know, is, among other things, decidedly shorter than previous Call of Duty games.
Repeating what has been reported in recent months, Bloomberg states that the game was actually born as an expansion of Modern Warfare 2. However, due to the postponement of another Call of Duty planned for 2023, Activision Blizzard decided to turn the game into an expansion pack. “stop” maintaining the annual pace of the series, turning it into a complete game, and ultimately leading to grueling production rhythms.
Sledgehammer Games feels betrayed by Activision
Some unnamed members of Sleldgehammer Games staff, who also worked nights and weekends to complete development, Betrayed by Activision BlizzardManagement promised that they would no longer have to go through an intensive production cycle after the release of their previous game, Call of Duty: Vanguard, which was apparently made under similar conditions.
The report goes on to explain that in the early months of the project, the story was conceived as a single story. smaller scale division Set in Mexico, Modern Warfare is definitely easier to make in shorter development times. But in the summer of last year, Activision Blizzard executives decided to reboot the story and asked Sledgehammer Games to create a direct sequel to Modern Warfare 2, centering on the villain Vladimir Makarav. This essentially forced the team to launch a new single-player campaign in about 16 months.
Developers also said they were frustrated with the way content was managed by Infinity Ward, the Activision studio normally responsible for the Modern Warfare series, with inefficiencies in exchanging feedback and implementing significant, sometimes unwelcome, changes.
Clearly, this is unofficial information that should be treated with skepticism, even if it comes from a trusted source like Bloomberg.