Treyarch Says Infinity Ward Mess Won't Be a "Distraction"

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Treyarch Says Infinity Ward Mess Won't Be a "Distraction"


Josh Olin of Call of Duty: Black Ops [http://www.treyarch.com/] could sell over ten million units in its first year of release.

There's been a lot of fallout from the March blow up at Infinity Ward [http://www.infinityward.com/], but one group of people it's apparently not affecting too much is the gang at fellow Call of Duty developer Treyarch. The studio has managed to avoid becoming embroiled in the mess, staying focused on the development of the latest Call of Duty release, Black Ops, instead.

"The situation at Infinity Ward is unfortunate. It's just not something that we want to let distract us or that we really think about too much," Olin said in an interview with MCV [http://www.mcvuk.com/digital-edition]. "We're still focused on our primary charge - to make the best game we possible can - so we're keeping our heads down and staying focused."

It's a smart approach to take. The implosion of Infinity Ward has left the weight of the Call of Duty franchise on Treyarch's shoulders and expectations are running high. The game is already a top-ten pre-order item at both Cowen and Co [http://www.amazon.com]. predicts that the game could sell 10.7 million units in its first year of release.

"We believe the title is headed for a better comparison versus last year's Modern Warfare 2 [http://modernwarfare2.infinityward.com/] than we had originally assumed," Creutz said. "We believe our revised estimate could still prove conservative, and note that a strong performance by the Treyarch-developed Black Ops would help combat the notion that the departure of key Infinity Ward talent could permanently impair the Call of Duty franchise."

Sources: GamesIndustry [http://www.develop-online.net/news/34969/Treyarch-not-distracted-by-Infinity-Ward-row?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+developmag%2Fifbh+%28Develop%29]


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Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
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Why would it? Activision isn't going to fuck up this big twice. Even they're not that stupid.
 

Danpascooch

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Apr 16, 2009
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Considering they couldn't suck any more than they already do, I don't see how Infinity Ward leaving would effect them anyway.
 

ultimateownage

This name was cool in 2008.
Feb 11, 2009
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I'm betting that Activision will fuck these guys over just like they did to infinity ward.
 

Weaver

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Apr 28, 2008
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Wait, a TREYARCH game is going to sell over 10 million units?
Excuse me while I laugh until I vomit.
 

MR T3D

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Feb 21, 2009
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ultimateownage said:
I'm betting that Activision will fuck these guys over just like they did to infinity ward.
IW had become rather cocky bastards in the leadup to MW2, which made their following plight far less sympathetic.


I sense that treyarch is less so, they'll just make a decent game with call of duty in the title, and sell their millions.
No biggie for them.
 

ultimateownage

This name was cool in 2008.
Feb 11, 2009
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MR T3D said:
ultimateownage said:
I'm betting that Activision will fuck these guys over just like they did to infinity ward.
IW had become rather cocky bastards in the leadup to MW2, which made their following plight far less sympathetic.


I sense that treyarch is less so, they'll just make a decent game with call of duty in the title, and sell their millions.
No biggie for them.
You have a point, but if this game does sell well, then treyarch might go the same way.
 

sooperman

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Feb 11, 2009
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What's this? Treyarch no longer needs to ride on IW's back? I'll believe it when I see it.

World at War didn't sell as many units as MW1, so I can't imagine Black Op selling as many copies as MW2. We'll see, though.
 

fix-the-spade

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Feb 25, 2008
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I guess after the repeated shitstorms that MW2 caused before, then after release, who ever made all those decisions is either sacked or went to Treyarch and said 'don't rock the baot, just make a nice game and for the love of Bobthulu don't rock the boat,'

We still don't know if MW2's main development decisions (you know the ones) were made by Infiinity Ward or Activision staff, we may never. Either way it's good to see Treyarch repeating precisely none of them.
 

MR T3D

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ultimateownage said:
MR T3D said:
ultimateownage said:
I'm betting that Activision will fuck these guys over just like they did to infinity ward.
IW had become rather cocky bastards in the leadup to MW2, which made their following plight far less sympathetic.


I sense that treyarch is less so, they'll just make a decent game with call of duty in the title, and sell their millions.
No biggie for them.
You have a point, but if this game does sell well, then treyarch might go the same way.
I doubt it, they'll take their share, and MAYBE they'll think to themselves that "we don't need those activision idiots, we're making this shit and selling a bazillion copies, fuck them" as IW had. And this is very likely, seeing as cawa dooty is mainly their invention, and you can see how they were setting up to make their own MW series in MW2.
hell, notice how we all call it MW2, not CoD6 or CoD:MW2 (though that last one is a bit long), and looking at the game's case on the side, Call of Duty is in smaller font than Modern Warfare 2. subtle things that add up to show IW folks wanted out of the activision unbrella, preferably with their cash-cow franchise.

well, it seems the top guys got one of those things.

but the key differences are that treyarch is more firmly under activion, having worked on other titles in other genres, and that they didn't invent the franchise, so I can soundly conclude that the dramatics won't repeat this year.
 

squid5580

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Feb 20, 2008
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sooperman said:
What's this? Treyarch no longer needs to ride on IW's back? I'll believe it when I see it.

World at War didn't sell as many units as MW1, so I can't imagine Black Op selling as many copies as MW2. We'll see, though.
How many are going to see MW glaring on the box and how many are going to notice the lack of IW on the same box?
 

Hashbrick

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Mar 20, 2009
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squid5580 said:
sooperman said:
What's this? Treyarch no longer needs to ride on IW's back? I'll believe it when I see it.

World at War didn't sell as many units as MW1, so I can't imagine Black Op selling as many copies as MW2. We'll see, though.
How many are going to see MW glaring on the box and how many are going to notice the lack of IW on the same box?
The ones that matter, the ones that play online all the time. Sure there will be people that pick up the title cause call of duty is across the box, but the ones that make the title sell know the difference between the two companies and to say otherwise is insulting their intelligence. Pick up and play modern warfare and then play world at war and then tell me you can't tell a difference in quality.

On topic to the story: Of course they are letting it bother them they are top dog now, well until they find out sledgehammer has more quality then them. None the less it will be interesting to see if they can pull of their first quality call of duty title without pissing off the fans.
 

Asehujiko

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Feb 25, 2008
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Treyarch doesn't suck. The reason CoD3 and WaW sucked was because Treyarch had 9 months to make the game(as opposed to the 2 years IW got), they had to use an engine that they had to reverse engineer in those 9 months because the only documentation that came with it was robert bowling calling their pr guy a douchebag, they were not allowed to do anything different then insanity ward and were given less then a tenth of the money that iw got to make their games.

They got the game industry equivalent of being ordered to go build a sandcastle during a monsoon, stop hating them for managing to produce something at all and start hating those who did everything in their power to stop it from being good in order to make their own products look better by contrast(hint: their current name starts with "Re" and ends with "spawn Entertainment".)
 

Yureina

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May 6, 2010
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I wish Treyarch luck. It remains to be seen how well they will actually do with this game.
 

mysterj

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squid5580 said:
sooperman said:
What's this? Treyarch no longer needs to ride on IW's back? I'll believe it when I see it.

World at War didn't sell as many units as MW1, so I can't imagine Black Op selling as many copies as MW2. We'll see, though.
How many are going to see MW glaring on the box and how many are going to notice the lack of IW on the same box?
Actually IW won't be lacking in the same box, so no one will notice anything until the credit rolls, which no one reads anyways.
 

Sir Kemper

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Onyx Oblivion said:
Why would it? Activision isn't going to fuck up this big twice. Even they're not that stupid.
Never underestimate a moron, they can surprise you with stupidity.
 

squid5580

Elite Member
Feb 20, 2008
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Hashbrick said:
squid5580 said:
sooperman said:
What's this? Treyarch no longer needs to ride on IW's back? I'll believe it when I see it.

World at War didn't sell as many units as MW1, so I can't imagine Black Op selling as many copies as MW2. We'll see, though.
How many are going to see MW glaring on the box and how many are going to notice the lack of IW on the same box?
The ones that matter, the ones that play online all the time. Sure there will be people that pick up the title cause call of duty is across the box, but the ones that make the title sell know the difference between the two companies and to say otherwise is insulting their intelligence. Pick up and play modern warfare and then play world at war and then tell me you can't tell a difference in quality.

On topic to the story: Of course they are letting it bother them they are top dog now, well until they find out sledgehammer has more quality then them. None the less it will be interesting to see if they can pull of their first quality call of duty title without pissing off the fans.
Oh right because if you play online that automatically makes you a well informed player who when not playing is surfing the web for new game news.
 

Hashbrick

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Mar 20, 2009
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squid5580 said:
Hashbrick said:
squid5580 said:
sooperman said:
What's this? Treyarch no longer needs to ride on IW's back? I'll believe it when I see it.

World at War didn't sell as many units as MW1, so I can't imagine Black Op selling as many copies as MW2. We'll see, though.
How many are going to see MW glaring on the box and how many are going to notice the lack of IW on the same box?
The ones that matter, the ones that play online all the time. Sure there will be people that pick up the title cause call of duty is across the box, but the ones that make the title sell know the difference between the two companies and to say otherwise is insulting their intelligence. Pick up and play modern warfare and then play world at war and then tell me you can't tell a difference in quality.

On topic to the story: Of course they are letting it bother them they are top dog now, well until they find out sledgehammer has more quality then them. None the less it will be interesting to see if they can pull of their first quality call of duty title without pissing off the fans.
Oh right because if you play online that automatically makes you a well informed player who when not playing is surfing the web for new game news.
I think you miss the point, the title sells cause of the online multiplayer. Many don't even play the campaign, I never played mewtwo campaign jumped right into multiplayer. The point is the core audience is the ones that are going to notice.
 

squid5580

Elite Member
Feb 20, 2008
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Hashbrick said:
squid5580 said:
Hashbrick said:
squid5580 said:
sooperman said:
What's this? Treyarch no longer needs to ride on IW's back? I'll believe it when I see it.

World at War didn't sell as many units as MW1, so I can't imagine Black Op selling as many copies as MW2. We'll see, though.
How many are going to see MW glaring on the box and how many are going to notice the lack of IW on the same box?
The ones that matter, the ones that play online all the time. Sure there will be people that pick up the title cause call of duty is across the box, but the ones that make the title sell know the difference between the two companies and to say otherwise is insulting their intelligence. Pick up and play modern warfare and then play world at war and then tell me you can't tell a difference in quality.

On topic to the story: Of course they are letting it bother them they are top dog now, well until they find out sledgehammer has more quality then them. None the less it will be interesting to see if they can pull of their first quality call of duty title without pissing off the fans.
Oh right because if you play online that automatically makes you a well informed player who when not playing is surfing the web for new game news.
I think you miss the point, the title sells cause of the online multiplayer. Many don't even play the campaign, I never played mewtwo campaign jumped right into multiplayer. The point is the core audience is the ones that are going to notice.
No I think you are the one who has missed the point. There is going to be alot of people who won't know the difference that IW didn't make it and someone else did. The experience could be just like COD4 or it could be better or worse. Just because it isn't IW doesn't mean the magic can't be replicated by someone else. But the point still stands there is going t obe alot of the core audience that won't know about the IW fiasco or care as long as the next COD MW game is as good as the rest. Sorry if that doesn't fit into your "they play online so they must be hardcore and know whenever a dev sneezes" stereotype that you seem to be intent on creating.