Not a week goes by without a controversy affecting video games. This time, it concerns Call of Duty and seems entirely justified due to a very questionable way of doing things.
The latest game in the series, Call of Duty, developed by Activision Blizzard, was produced in a much shorter time frame than its predecessors. Which seems to negatively affect its critical reception, particularly with regard to its storyline. Indeed, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 was developed in less than eighteen months, instead of the usual three years. Causing significant stress for the development team. This is the main problem. What can we learn?
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 in the sauce
The very serious media Bloomberg investigated Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 and the reason for its rather cold reception. This game is the first big launch since Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision for $69 billion. It was originally intended as an expansion of the previous year’s episode but turned into a full sequel. The developers at Sledgehammer Games, forced to work long hours, feel betrayed by this acceleration of the process, having been promised not to undergo such a shortening after their previous game, Call of Duty: Vanguard.
To release the game on time and stick to the schedule, some pretty atrocious working methods have been reported. Developers faced significant overtime, including working nights and weekends. This intensive pace was imposed to fill a gap in the release schedule. After the postponement of another Call of Duty title initially planned for 2023. This situation generated a feeling of frustration among the developers. A feeling exacerbated by the pressure of having to obtain approval from the leaders of Infinity Ward. This introduced additional inefficiencies and sometimes unwanted changes to their creative work. Without obviously taking into account the long-term psychological effects of such a way of working.
Crunch, but for what result?
The project’s initial storyline, named Jupiter, was planned as a smaller-scale spin-off set in Mexico. However, this past summer, Activision executives changed direction, directing developers to produce a direct sequel to Modern Warfare 2, significantly reducing development time.
Early reviews were harsh, with mediocre reviews from major video game media outlets. They point to a “hastily assembled” storyline and suggest that a longer development time would have been beneficial for the quality of the game. These criticisms focus on the story missions and not on the multiplayer and zombie modes, which are ultimately very close to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, thus avoiding a lot of problems…
Despite these criticisms, analysts believe that a critical failure of the game is unlikely to have a significant impact on the series in the short term. However, a steady decline in quality could prompt Microsoft to rethink its strategy. Or to space out the annual outings that the series has followed since 2005, which we hope for the mental health of employees.