We have some details on the production of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, courtesy of an interview with Activision’s own Eric Hirshberg.
Eric starts off by explaining how Sledgehammer Games was built as an added cornerstone for the Call of Duty series. They cut their teeth on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and, as we know, stepped up to the plate when Activision switched the series to a three year development cycle.
Eric reveals Sledgehammer was actually working on a ‘cool’ 3rd person shooter, fresh off Dead Space, when they were switched over to Call of Duty. Sledgehammer is in the unique position of having enough experience with the games to come in, but also new enough that they would bring new ideas to the series.
Eric talks about how going for a two year development cycle, and now three year cycle, for Call of Duty was intended to sustain a certain level of quality. Eric eventually talks about Activision anticipating the challenges in the launch and ensuing transition to eight generation consoles, and being right on the money. He explains that they saw it would be initially difficult for everyone involved, but there would be a lot of opportunity for those game companies that can weather through.
And of course, Eric talks up how making that call meant they planned appropriately, and as a result Call of Duty turned out to be the top game in 7th and 8th generation platforms.
On the side, when asked about bringing Michael Myers and Predator into the games, Eric explained that they were not necessarily looking at more licensing for future games as much as more experimentation. This mindset allowed the devs to bring zombies into Call of Duty, and he has high hopes Sledgehammer will bring more creative ideas in future installments of these games.
You can watch the original interview here. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will come November 4 on Windows, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.
