Update:
It’s been brought to our attention a post that went out from Sledgehammer Games after the reports started to emerge online over potentially rushed development. You can view the official statements from the embedded post below.
Original Story…
There was a time when a video game could be made in a few months’ time, if not less, due to the games’ size, the period’s data constraints, and more. We do NOT live in those times anymore. These days, games take YEARS to make, and those are the lucky ones! AAA titles especially hurl tens of millions of dollars at products to try and ensure the best quality and get the best results. It takes time, but the results speak for themselves, as both Mario and Spider-Man can attest to. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 either didn’t get that memo or didn’t care.
The latest in the long-standing franchise arrived today, and the backlash has already started to hit the fan. If you go to OpenCritic, you’ll see that the game currently has a 54 review score and that many popular sites like IGN, Gamespot, and more blasted the game and gave it incredibly low scores like 5/10, if not lower. But why is the title getting hit like this? It’s partially because the game was rushed out.
As Bloomberg notes, the title was meant to be a kind of expansion to the previous entry in the “modern” series, but that got scrapped to become its own title. While Activision Blizzard denies that’s the case, the game’s content speaks volumes. For example, you can be the game’s campaign in under FIVE HOURS! That makes it the shortest campaign in the history of the series, which is not a good record to set.
Plus, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 was made in just 16 months, versus the YEARS that most games in the franchise take to be completed and then tested. That’s another Bloomberg pointed out: to get the game out, the staff had to work nights AND weekends, and they were promised that they wouldn’t have to go through another development cycle like this again. They had to do it for a previous title that was equally disliked, but Activision Blizzard put the screws to them, and the team felt “betrayed” as a result.
Arguably, the worst part of all of this is that despite the bad reviews and fan complaints and the staff feeling betrayed the game’s “name value” will be enough to sell millions, and thus, Activision Blizzard won’t “reap what they sow” outside of some bad publicity. Something that we KNOW they’re fine with “talking down” and “deflecting” upon as they rake in money.
