Modern Warfare 3 was a whirlwind 16-month mission, and it surprised no one

At this point, it’s almost certain that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s campaign might be the worst in the series’ history, with the entire game feeling like an added addition to last year’s Modern Warfare 2.

As it turns out, there’s a reason for that, as revealed in Jason Schreier’s new report About what exactly happened here. It should surprise no one that yes, this was a quick job at all that required Sledgehammer to work hard and change the campaign in 16 months whereas previously Call of Duty games had run on three-year cycles.

The idea was that Modern Warfare 3 was originally an expansion of MW2, not a completely new game, but that changed over time as Activision wanted to sell the “real” Call of Duty game around the holiday season, as is always the case. Activision now denies this, but according to Schreier’s report, dozens of current and former employees say that’s more or less what they were told.

The folks at Sledgehammer were upset about this rushed new timeline after having to pre-sprint the release of Call of Duty: Vanguard, and were told it wouldn’t happen again. Instead, they had to create the new campaign in 16 months, the shortest development cycle ever in the series’ history, and the result was a short mission collection that currently contains a disastrous 53 missions. opencritic With only 8% of critics recommending it, a clear all-time low for the series.

Apparently the original plan was for Sledgehammer to do a sequel to Advanced Warfare, adding to 2014’s Toy Story, but that was scrapped in favor of another Modern Warfare, as it became increasingly clear that Activision only wanted MW or Black Ops games these days.

Now, the debate over what to do with Call of Duty turns to Microsoft, as they are the new owners of both Activision and the IP. When acquisition talks first began, there was an idea that Activision’s portfolio of studios would not continue to become Call of Duty support studios, and some would be allowed to return to work on other IPs. And Call of Duty may no longer need to have an annual release cadence.

But that was a long time ago, and we have no idea what Microsoft’s current plans are. Even though Modern Warfare 3 has yet to launch on Xbox Game Pass, it stands to reason that Microsoft would probably want to release the next Call of Duty game there, causing a surge in signups, and realizing what the acquisition would do to Xbox gamers. Maybe they want it to happen next year instead of two years from now.

It seems pretty clear that Activision is starting to lose its grip on a cohesive schedule for COD, and it seems like it would be wise for the continued health of the series to avoid situations like this that could damage the brand and increase perceptions of its decline. Again, this is all about Microsoft now, a company that Activision employees hope will be different from their old masters who demanded things like this, but it’s too early to tell what will happen here. All we know for sure is that Modern Warfare 3 was a flop, which isn’t shocking, given the extremely narrow development window that no one can blame Sledgehammer itself for.

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