Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Was Reportedly Developed in 16 Months - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 10 November 2023 / 4,433 Views
Publisher Activision and developer Sledgehammer Games released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023) today and the game has been panned by critics with the campaign only taking around four hours to complete.
Over a dozen current and former Call of Duty developers speaking with Bloomberg revealed the game started out an expansion for 2022's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II.
The sources claim Activision executives decided to reboot the project and told Sledgehammer Games it would be a sequel to 2022's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II rather than an expansion. This forced the developers to complete the campaign in about 16 months, which is the shortest development time for a new Call of Duty game in years.
Some employees had to work nights and weekends in order to finish the game and they felt betrayed by leadership as they were promised there would no longer be crunch following Call of Duty: Vanguard, which was developed with similar crunch.
An Activision spokesman has denied the claims the game was originally an expansion and said it was conceived as a "premium game" from the beginning.
Sledgehammer Games studio head Aaron Halon said the game was "a new type of direct sequel" to the previous game as that could be why some staff might have been convinced the game was an expansion. The game lets players transfer their weapons and gear from last year's game.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023) is available for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
