No more MW from IW

[Pino]

Thanks to Stevebarnes15 for the heads up that VG247 is saying that Infinity Ward is off a new project and will be leaving Modern Warfare to another developer.

We had heard that there was a third developer coming on the scene for CoD, but I do not think we had expected that Infinity Ward would leave their baby to this new outfit. That might indeed happen given this latest news:

Source

Infinity Ward is not creating Modern Warfare 3, according to a VG247 source, and is instead working on something “completely new”.


The details come from US insiders.

Infinity Ward has this far avoided the issue of its work after Modern Warfare 2, saying no decision had been made on further projects in the run up to the shooter’s launch last November.

“Right now we don’t have a clue what our next game is going to be, and we won’t know what it will be until we finish with Modern Warfare 2, which won’t be for a while,” studio frontman Rob Bowling told IGN UK last October.

MW2 DLC packs are scheduled to release this “spring” as a timed 360 exclusive.

It’s unclear where the third game will be made if IW really has gone AWOL from the series.

We were told by one dev source that a Canadian studio was handling it, but another pointed to newly-formed Sledgehammer Games, headed by ex-Visceral bosses Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey.

Sledgehammer, based in the Bay Area, is currently recruiting for a multiplayer designer with “five years experience working on current AAA multiplayer shooters for current consoles and PC.”

The identity of Sledgehammer’s first project is yet to be announced.

Activision’s only Canadian developer is Vancouver-based Radical Entertainment, the studio behind last year’s free-roaming adventure, Prototype.

Rumour surrounding the Call of Duty franchise in general is escalating. A report yesterday claimed that Treyarch is currently putting together a story-focused, Vietnam-based episode in the series for release later this year.

Activision had not returned calls at the time of writing.

Here is the jobseeker ad for the Sledgehammer position (source).

We are looking for someone to take on the major responsibilities of:

• Leading the design effort to create innovative multiplayer experiences.
• Designing multiplayer maps: creating initial paper-map designs, building 3D rough maps, participating in extensive playtesting sessions, iterating and improving maps based on feedback and playtesting, and working closely with artists when they take over the map to make it look amazing.
• Creating and maintaining detailed multiplayer design documents.
• Design and implementation of multiplayer HUD and lobby.

Qualifications:
• 5 years experience working on current AAA multiplayer shooters for current consoles and PC.
• Must demonstrate advanced experience with current multiplayer design and be an avid gamer with a passion for creating great games.
• Experience building rough geometry in a 3D modeling program.
• Substantial mod or community-map making experience will be taken into consideration.
• Knowledge of Maya, Quake and Unreal



Not far fetched

Come to think of it...Infinity Ward leaving the Modern Warfare franchise may not be so far-fetched.

From a technological point of view, I do not see what else they can do with it. In this go-around, they threw everything and the kitchen sink into this perk-ridden, kill-streak-soaked, console-port, douche-fest.

The graphics are pretty much maxed out for its intended platform (the XBox) and I don't think they could shoe-horn in another gimmick into the game. IW devs took just about everything they could from the PC modding community and then added a few more items they dreamed-up, during what must have been an all-night, frog-licking contest and jammed it into the game.

There's nowhere to go.

For this reason I tend to believe the rumor that they're going off to do something different.

Legacy

Legacy-wise, an IW departure would elicit very mixed feelings from PC players.

PC gamers will think fondly of the early empire. Under ex-IW Grant Collier's imperial presence, PC CoD flourished and the IW empire grew. CoD2 and CoD4 were fabulous games..some of the best FPS games of all time.

When Grant left, hardcore PC gaming became an anathema to IW. Zampella (the Caligula to Grant's Tiberius) oversaw Modern Warfare 2's destruction of the PC community that had once created IW's very fame. A rape of our modding community's ideas was followed by the removal of our dedicated servers...a double envelopment. A cultural heritage that stretched back to CoD:UO was lost.

If you are indeed on your merry way IW...thanks for all the fish. Don't let the door knob smack you in the butt on your way out.

Will they be making something for the PS4 or XBox 720, due out in 2011?

http://bashandslash.com/index.php?op...d=852&Itemid=1

[thekiller]

The graphics are pretty much maxed out for its intended platform (the XBox)

fuckers, it is and always will be a pc game!!

[vice]

Damn! that is not good news.

[KAYsniper]

i think its time to sell the xbox, and wait for 720

[SnakeDoctor]

maybe it is a good thing because maybe who ever will take it over will realize it is the PC communities not the console that made the game series what it is today.

[thekiller]

maybe it is a good thing because maybe who ever will take it over will realize it is the PC communities not the console that made the game series what it is today.

I so hope they will, cuz it is indeed going to a console game, which is wrong! fps are and will always be better on a pc than on the consoles we have now.

[Agent47]

bye bye IWnet

[DangerZone]

bye bye IWnet

hopefully the new team will learn from IW mistake, but mw2 has done well financially (http://xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/...1061089p1.html) even with all the negative vibe surrounding the pc version, so they may opt to go the easier route and make another 360 port.

[thekiller]

thats because a lot of regular ppl who are not hardcore gamers or barely know anything about a pc, just buy themselves an xbox and call of duty. Most of the sales went to ppl who dont give a shit about dedicated servers or not, who just wanna play once in a while or didnt even know there werent gonna be dedicated servers.

They went for the money, not for satisfying hardcore cod gamers.

[infinity]

Ether way oh well, What more can really be done with the game? They raped us and are now leaving. Well good go. I wouldn't expect miracles from another dev (thinks back to COD3 & cod5)

I can't even bring myself around to pirating the game for single player heard it was shit any way.

COD4 & 2 are still good. I had fun playing the other night with you all. We should play more often.