A report alleges that Modern Warfare 3 was made in half the time usually given to a Call Of Duty game, and was finished in just 16 months.
The hype and excitement that once surrounded the Call Of Duty franchise has ebbed somewhat since its 2010 peak with Black Ops, but the first-person shooter series still has a devoted legion of fans.
The latest entry, Modern Warfare 3, is out today (10th November), and has been marked out by some markedly negative reviews. Eurogamer, for example, describes it as “hastily assembled” and “clearly rushed to market.”
If a report by Bloomberg's Jason Schreier is correct, then it looks as though there’s a good reason why the finished product has been so poorly received – Modern Warfare 3 was reportedly made in just 16 months rather than the three years typically given to previous entries.
The trouble apparently began when the Call Of Duty game originally planned for release in 2023 was pushed back. This left developer Sledgehammer Games rushing to make a replacement – what began as DLC for last year’s Modern Warfare II was therefore hastily retooled into what would become this year’s Modern Warfare 3. According to Bloomberg, the decision to turn the DLC into a full, standalone game was only handed down by Activision executives in the summer of 2022.
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With such a compressed schedule, developers at Sledgehammer reportedly had to work “nights and weekends” in order to get the game completed on time. The game’s initially-planned Mexico setting was broadened out to include more locations around the globe, and developers were ordered to add in series villain Vladimir Makarov, who first appeared in 2007’s Modern Warfare.
In response, perhaps, to Bloomberg’s report, Sledgehammer Games boss Aaron Halon wrote a statement and published it on X/Twitter – interestingly, Halon describes the game as being “years in the making” rather than months.
“We’re incredibly proud of Modern Warfare 3 – both the full game experience at launch and the upcoming year of content we have planned for the community,” Halon wrote in a lengthy post. “We have worked hard to deliver on this vision which has been years in the making. Anything said to the contrary is simply not true – this is our game and we cannot wait to play it online with all of you.”
Time will tell whether Call Of Duty fans will respond as harshly to the game as reviewers.
