Out of the turmoil of Activision’s legal battle with Vince Zampella and Jason West (creators of Infinity Ward and the Call of Duty series) Activision has consistently produced Call of Duty Games on a strict annual basis. The series has been developed by these two studios for years. Following the success of Infinity Ward’s ‘Call of Duty 2’, Activision divided the development duties between Zampella and West’s Studio and another studio: Treyarch. The second Call of Duty team (Treyarch) had previously produced the inferior console versions of the original Call of Duty. Activision wanted a Call of Duty Game on the market every year and this new development cycle granted Infinity Ward the two year gap in-between games they felt was necessary in order to produce a quality product. Infinity Ward did not want to share their franchise with another studio and see numbered games (i.e. Call of Duty 3 by Treyarch) produced by other studios, but it was a compromise they made.

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In 2007 IW would release what they considered to be the true sequel to Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. COD 4 was a departure from past games in that it focused on the near future rather than the battles of World War 2. It retained elements traditionally associated with the series such as a revolving door of protagonists to play as and a heavily scripted and linear campaign. Its multiplayer brought something to the fps genre that none had before: a persistent RPG-like level system that rewarded players with experience which they could then use to obtain weapons, equipment and perks (Call of Duty’s class based modifiers, that slightly changed the way one particular player could fight through online battles). Killstreaks (a feature included in games such as Halo) now included feasible rewards in the form of a UAV (which displayed the positions of enemies on the map), an airstrike (which carpet-bombed a section of the map) and an attack helicopter (which roamed the map and took out enemy players with a chain gun. COD 4 was massively popular and received many accolades for both its single player campaign and unique competitive multiplayer. In the interim Treyarch released World At War which applied COD 4′s design to the Pacific Front of World War 2.

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IW followed COD 4 with MW 2 (which would be one of the most hyped games of all time); MW 2 would in fact live up to the hype and sell over 22 million copies. The game redefined the design of COD 4 and added a slew of new features; spec ops mode added a dozen missions that could be played co-operatively, a first for the series. The multiplayer expanded on the previous iteration with more maps, weapons, perks, customizable killstreaks and all new “deathstreaks”. The campaign acted much like a classic action film (think Die Hard or Commando) and while it was quite short (about six hours), it was incendiary. The story of the game was given the treatment it deserved and featured a controversial scene (“no Russian”) that put the player in the shoes of a mass-murdering terrorist. A media craze and endless debate on its relevance of ‘games as art’ movement followed. The game was a phenomenon, outselling every other game that year and later with the film AVATAR, its effect was felt everywhere. Activision was pleased with the game’s success to say the least. A very comprehensive contract between Activision and IW creators Zampella and West had been in place for years. Activision failed to live up to their legal obligation and attempted to coerce IW into producing Modern Warfare 3 in a year’s time and threatened to withhold bonuses IW had earned with MW2. Zampella and West have left IW and Activision to create a new studio (Respawn Entertainment) with a very creatively open contract with Electronic Arts. IW has gone on to produce Modern Warfare 3 without the large chunk of staff that left with Zampella and West. They filled out the development duties with Activision owned Sledgehammer games.

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