If Marvel and the MCU aren’t doing well right now, there’s another franchise right now that’s disappointing gamers. This license is Call of Duty, the latest episode of which is officially released today, this Friday, November 10, 2023. A tiptoe release compared to previous episodes and especially under the cover of numerous accusations for several months. But then, an investigation by Jason Schreier came out last night, with testimonies from anonymous developers who tell us that the game was made in a hurry and almost at the last minute…
If you follow video game news at all, you have certainly noticed that the press notes for this year’s Call of Duty are still not known. However, when we go to Metacritic, we see that there are already 21 reviews listed but that Metacritic has not taken an average. I’ve heard people in the industry say, “Wait, is Activision the one doing ratings retention?” Obviously not, because the opinions that have been posted so far only concern the rating of the single player campaign, available for almost a week, because Activision has once again released the single player campaign before the multiplayer. And when we properly test a Call of Duty, we take into account solo and multiplayer! I would even say that multiplayer is obviously more important than the single player campaign today, even if the latter must continue to exist. We remember when Black Ops III had no single player, it was a bit of a debacle. And let’s not forget that if Call of Duty has become the juggernaut it is today, it’s thanks to the single player.
But back on topic. Why is Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 being slammed by the press today? Well at least for this episode? Besides, even the feedback from players and videographers is not great. Well, we already knew it more or less with what came out a year ago in the form of rumors, but an investigation by Jason Schreier published last night reveals the underside of an unusual and above all stressful development for the teams of development. The Bloomberg journalist collected numerous anonymous testimonies from people who worked on the game and if the game is released in this state today, it is because the development was done in a hurry. A year and a half instead of the usual three years of production, and above all developers informed last minute, with periods of crunch which multiplied to release the game on time and a feeling of betrayal among the developers. The winning cocktail for a new controversy and to continue to give grist to Jason Schreier’s mill.
Remember, at the end of 2022, we learned – again via Jason Schreier – that no episode of Call of Duty was planned in 2023, but that the plans were to make a DLC to Modern Warfare 2. But in February 2023, during its financial results, Activision confirmed an episode of Kalof for this year. Except that we did not yet know the underside of this hasty decision. In the Bloomberg paper, we learn that if the development time was shortened, it was to fill a gap in the release schedule following the delay of another Call of Duty title previously planned for 2023. We also learn that Call of Duty Modern Warfare III was initially presented as an expansion to last year’s Modern Warfare 2 to the teams at Sledgehammer Games, before being transformed into a full game during development. Obviously, when we know all the money that the series generates each year (between 15 and 30 million copies are sold every year), for Bobby Kotick, it is unthinkable not to be there. Now that the game has been sold to Microsoft, it might be time to ease the pressure and take a little more time, so as not to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs… Moreover, according to the Testimonies collected by Jason Schreier, the developers hope that Microsoft will be understanding in the face of this exceptional situation and the poor press ratings and negative opinions from players.
For its part, Activision has denied that Modern Warfare III was originally an expansion and a company spokesperson even said that Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 was designed from the start as a “premium game.” But more than a dozen current and former Call of Duty developers said his comments contradicted what they were told at the time. Some employees said the plan was left ambiguous during the first months of development, while others said they were directly told it was DLC. In short, nothing is very clear. Either way, Activision knew this episode was going to disappoint for a while. No preview for the specialized press, just a multi event for influencers and COD specialists, the game which was sent very late to the press, the multi accessible 2 days before the embargo date set for the full release day afternoon, a retention of opinions which recalls what Disney did for The Marvels, also already condemned internally. Besides, regarding our test of the game, we will release it in a few days, time to properly test the multiplayer mode…
