Infinity Ward executive producer Mark Rubin has told GamesIndustry he believes it's important for the industry that Call of Duty's competitors, including DICE's Battlefield 4, are successful.
While former EA CEO John Riccitiello firmly believes Battlefield 4 is superior to Call of Duty: Ghosts, Rubin thinks it's different from a developer's point of view.
"It's less antagonistic, from a developer's side – sure marketing and stuff is all [about that] but on a developer's side it's like, 'Oh, did you see that stuff they're doing? That's so cool!' We could do something that's like this and this and that and we get excited about seeing that kind of stuff.
"So from a developer's side, it definitely pushes us [to do better]. But it pushes us in a – I don't know if others studios feel this way – but I hope in a sort of camaraderie type sense. 'Oh, those guys are doing awesome stuff. Let's jack up our game.' But not like two opposing teams. Rather, like the same team pushing in the same direction," Rubin commented.
He went on to say that it's important for key titles to be good and that this is healthy for the industry, "We want all gaming, in general to be awesome, because if gaming isn't good, then we all lose our jobs in a sense. So for us, I think that the intellectual realisation is we want to be successful because if gaming is successful then we're all successful."
Rubin said that despite Call of Duty's massive sales they want each game's deveopment to be a "struggle" so that the team can experience a "Rocky moment" when they make a breakthrough. He says the studio needs to work harder every year and can't just "phone this in".
Both Call of Duty: Ghosts and Battlefield 4 are set for release later this year.
