Activision thought Modern Warfare idea was risky

Critics and videogame nerds generally agree that World War II is overdone. A few studios feel the same way as well, specifically developer Infinity Ward, who found themselves singing the WW II blues over five years ago when publisher Activision offered to allow the studio to develop console games in exchange for making Call of Duty 2 what it is this day.

“With Call of Duty 2, we were dead set against it being World War II,” IW’s Vince Zampella told Official PlayStation Magazine (spotted by CVG) in a recent interview, “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 II game.”

According to Zampella, Activision thought of IW as a PC developer, despite a desire to make a console game.

An unwise choice in hindsight considering the profound impact of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on consumers and the Activision’s earnings sheets. But even this blockbuster title was contested at some point. Years after Call of Duty II, the publisher was still afraid of going modern.

“And something I’ll add to that,” game project lead Jason West said, “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. They wanted it to be World War II. Again.”

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 hits November 10th.