News

Infinity Ward: "We don't care about sales numbers"
Posted: 22.09.2011 05:19 by JonahFalcon Comments: 25
Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling, best known for his FourZeroTwo twitter feed, states flatly that Infinity Ward doesn't care if their games are bought by "three or three million" people, and leaves the competition to the publisher executives.

"Not at all, there's no buy in on that sort of stuff," Bowling insists. "We don't care about sales numbers, we don't care about competition, we don't care about beating anyone. Our 100 per cent focus is making a game that we're going to love to play, that we're going to be proud of, and that we know that our fans are going to play. To us, we don't care if there are three people playing it or 30 million people playing it. If there are three people having a great time then we've done our job correctly and we will be happy."

Bowling also touched on the defection of over half the developer when co-founders Vince Zampella and Jason West left Activision in an acrimonious divorce with the publisher, forcing the company to merge Infinity Ward with fellow developer Sledgehammer Games.

"What's really cool is, at Infinity Ward we have very strong design philosophies of this is what makes a Modern Warfare, and we have a very passionate vision of what we wanted Modern Warfare 3 to be, based on our feelings about MW2 and our fan feedback from COD4," says Bowling. "But then you have a team like Sledgehammer who comes in with a completely fresh perspective, a completely different outlook on what they expect from a Modern Warfare title and what they want to see from a fan perspective, because they didn't work on the franchise previously. That allows a unique opportunity for us to execute on our vision, but also build on top of that in ways that we may never have before."

Bowling added, "There are inherently logistical challenges, especially early on doing something like that, (but) there was never a hard divide, like, 'You take this, and we'll take this, and we won't speak to each other, we'll just do our job.' Once you made it clear that that's not how things operate, that it is working as one team, playing off each other's strengths and weaknesses, it really worked."

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will be launched on multiple platforms on November 8, 2011. It's more likely to sell three million than three - though it's more likely to sell more, since Modern Warfare 2 sold 12.5M units on the Xbox 360 alone.
Source: IGN

Comments

By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Sep 22, 2011
FoolWolf
I hope they make a decent game and that the MP game will be better executed then BLOPS but still have the ease of finding a game. That was the best feature of BLOPS IMO.
By SiyaenSokol (SI Elite) on Sep 22, 2011
SiyaenSokol
I agree with you FoolWolf. Hopefully they will make such a game.
By Revan (SI Elite) on Sep 22, 2011
Revan
I've got a lot more faith in Infinity Ward than I do Treyarch, thats for dang sure.
By Xyfer117 (SI Core) on Sep 22, 2011
Xyfer117
Yeah the modern warfare games are better than anything treyarch have come out with, I have faith in IW.
By SiyaenSokol (SI Elite) on Sep 22, 2011
SiyaenSokol
That is true. Modern Warfare games were a lot better than Treyarch's games.
By fltatk (SI Veteran Member) on Sep 22, 2011
fltatk
Yes, but lot of people from Iw have left to Respawn...
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Sep 22, 2011
FoolWolf
Still, Treyarch's multiplayer part kicks the other MW games fair and square...
By Xyfer117 (SI Core) on Sep 22, 2011
Xyfer117
@Foolwolf - Strongly disagree, treyarch may have included a lot of features that MW didnt but the online play itself doesnt compare to MW imo, I still play MW now.
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Sep 22, 2011
SirRoderick
And I don't care if i breathe oxygen.
By Chosen_One (SI Elite) on Sep 22, 2011
Chosen_One
Infinity Ward is no more! Core key person's left IW because of Activision's ignorance! And I never forgive them for that!
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Sep 23, 2011
FoolWolf
@Xyfer117 - you are entitled to your opinion, but I still feel that on PC the controls and flow of BLOPS far exceeds the MW series. But they are both not optimal games for online gaming IMO. Both suffer from bad decisions and stunted play. Both have maps that are not optimal to play on. Both are riddled with a bunch of unfriendly players and the n00b calling STFU comments...
By SiyaenSokol (SI Elite) on Sep 23, 2011
SiyaenSokol
I haven't played CoD online before, but I agree, that this "n00b" thing is very annoying. Even on Starcraft you get these players that play like crap, but they will call you the n00b.

I never call players n00b online, I just feel that it is mean and breaks some people down.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Sep 23, 2011
herodotus
What a load bollocks. Sorry guys, but if anyone buys into that BS then I will strap on the proverbial pig and fly to the moon:)
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Sep 23, 2011
SirRoderick
Very nice way of putting it hero.
By Xyfer117 (SI Core) on Sep 23, 2011
Xyfer117
@Herodotus - Haha yes they clearly DO care about sales numbers, I mean, who wouldn't right? If it didn't sell they would be out of a job.

@Foolwolf - I play COD on the 360 and BLOPS to me has always felt sluggish and the contact rate never seems right. Maybe its just the different platforms we're playing on.

@ViGotH - Yes playing online in the cod community can be a pain when you're stuck in a lobby full of 12 year olds swearing and making "your mum" jokes. I know what its like to be that age and want to play a game thats an 18 but this makes me wish they couldnt!
By SiyaenSokol (SI Elite) on Sep 23, 2011
SiyaenSokol
@Xyfer117: I understand that part completely, and I am wondering why they don't have leagues and stuff on these games, because that should make things easier.

In Starcraft II you get different leagues, and your gameplay will determine where you fit in. In the lower leagues, you tend to get players that use cheap tactics (in this case n00b tactics) like CoD's grenade launcher, but the fact is, they stay in the lower leagues unless they learn how to play properly.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Sep 23, 2011
herodotus
@Xyfer117 and ViGotH
I am a "nOOb" and proud of it! I am not a 'newbie' to FPs's having played them since "Wolfenstein 3D", plaing "MoH" to death when it first came out - the one that really kicked off the modern shooter.
When it comes to online gameplay (be it FPS or RTS) I'm crap and I admit it - age, ability, reflexes, eyesight...whatever. When these 'kids' start railing at my being a "nOOb" I rail back at them and have a great laugh swearing and raging at them....because they get so boiled up and furious you can almost see their red little cheeks exploding. It's hilarious:)
I do, however despise hardcore player who take advantage of players on so-called "Noob" servers where folk are trying to sharpen their skills only to kill everyone just for points. Those are the F'Tards that get my goat up!
By Xyfer117 (SI Core) on Sep 23, 2011
Xyfer117
@Hero - I've got nothing against noobs! Everybody starts somewhere or has a certain skill level I just hate it when kids who aren't even old enough to legally play the game p!$$ me off! its good that you have a found a way to deal with them though haha!
By Jasca_Ducato (SI Core) on Sep 24, 2011
Jasca_Ducato
The definition of multiplayer: "when kids who aren't even old enough to legally play the game p!$$ me off!!"

Which is generally why I never play MP games, save for Brotherhood (soon to become Revelations) and Gears 3...
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Sep 26, 2011
SirRoderick
Try Red Orchestra 2. It's got a pretty decent ratio going, since it's quite unforgiving. So if you like that sort of game, it's perfect.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Sep 25, 2011
herodotus
"RA 2" isn't going well by all accounts and early reviews. The faithful diehards are still supporting, yet even they are having trouble sustaining the game (which was released way too early and in quite poor shape). Good to see TWI stepping into the big time, following their modding roots but to ask for full retail price for an unfinished prouct is, well siding with Activision and Ubisoft.
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Sep 25, 2011
FoolWolf
Red Orchestra looked promising until they released too many gameplay vids... Then it all of a sudden didn't look all that interesting, but a good community and good playerbase can make a huge difference...
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Sep 25, 2011
herodotus
Trouble is, the playerbase is falling rapidly since launch as each new patch seems to bugger everything up. Game not optimised? Solution: Patch that lowers the in-game graphics so it will run better on 3 yo PC's. Not my way of looking at improving sales, but anyhoo.
TWI's attitude seems to be: "Live with it!".
By bosnian_dragon (SI Core) on Sep 25, 2011
bosnian_dragon
Some people play multiplayer so that they could say "I'm the best"... I play multiplayer so that I could enjoy the game. I love those moments when I kill the "best player" in the game because I outsmarted him, no matter if my kill/death ratio is 1:50
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Sep 26, 2011
herodotus
The major difference between "Call of Duty" (post-"Cod 2") and "BF:BC 2", "MoH" and in all likelihood "BF 3" is that team play is a must, with good communications at Squad level essential to ensure victory. Even if you don't win, and are completley 'pwned' by the Oppo's the satisfaction is high. Nothing like walking away from the PC (or console, I guess) after getting through an intense and flowing MP battle - smiles all around.
"CoD" these days, as with many servers in every other game don't get me wrong is all about going it alone. S&D in "CoD" is about the only exception where teamwork is truly needed, yet it is never really followed. Even then it's hardly ever played, unlike it being the staple for Clan-based scrims in "CoD 2".