But now, an Activision spokesperson has issued a statement to Game Informer saying that the leaked project was just a proposal and nothing more. “The game concept was proposed by a former employee while working at the studio but was not seriously considered nor requested to move to prototype,” the statement reads.
[HTML1]
Even if it was just a proposal, the video released by GamesRadar does seem to demonstrate that a decent amount of work had been put into the title. The biggest change clearly would have been the move to third-person combat, something that other developers have tried and failed to incorporate into Call of Duty.
Activision’s move to quickly nip this story in the bud would seem to imply that the publisher doesn’t want its fans reading too much into this project Still, some are likely to be disappointed, especially considering that there’s been a new Call of Duty every year since 2005 and many of those games have ended up following the same general formula. We’d even argue that the Internet’s reaction to Call of Duty: Roman Wars seems to show that there is a desire out there in the CoD community to see something different or more experimental from the franchise.
Activision’s efforts are no doubt currently laser focused on the upcoming Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare remaster but one has to wonder if the buzz created by this leaked video will have the publisher rethinking its strategy for Call of Duty in the future. After all, things can’t get much worse than they are right now for the franchise, with even Activision’s CEO admitting that there is a lot of hate out there right now for CoD after Infinite Warfare’s debut trailer became the second most disliked video in YouTube history.
To be fair though, a game’s initial reception from fans and the press doesn’t always translate to the marketplace. Black Ops 3 was 2015’s best-selling game even though some fans made the same claims about Call of Duty fatigue prior to that game’s release.
Activision will find out soon enough where one of its top franchises stands when Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare releases on November 4, 2016 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Source: Game Informer
