There’s no denying the behemoth that is Call of Duty. Since its inception in 2003, the military FPS franchise has dominated the best sellers lists, pumping out new titles every year with the exception of 2004. Over the past five years, independent film director Jonathon Beales has been working on a documentary charting the game’s rise to cult status—which wasn’t an easy feat.
Beales says the biggest challenge with creating CODumentary was compressing a 15 year timeline within just 93 minutes:
“It’s a rich story of evolution told through the eyes of games developers, fans, industry experts and professional players”
The documentary will explore the Call of Duty phenomenon, pinpointing the latent qualities that gave it adequate shielding from competing WWII themed games, as well as how developers Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer managed to sustain its popularity for more than a decade. CODumentary will be “centred on video games” but encapsulates the human side of things too: the developers’ story, the unforgettable experiences of fans who played the games and waited in line for them, and the professional COD players who invest hours of gruelling practice into earning their rank in the World League.
CODumentary is releasing worldwide on September 19 through Steam and Amazon. PlayStation, Xbox, Google Play and iTunes will also be hosting the documentary beyond the initial release.
