Infinity Ward Community Manager Robert Bowling says that despite being a Call of Duty game, the studio thinks of Modern Warfare 2 as a “new IP” and is committed to sticking with the franchise for as long as it can.
Bowling was responding to comments made by Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford in June, when he suggested that Infinity Ward is trapped within the confines of the Call of Duty games. “It’s too big of a risk for Infinity Ward to do anything but what they’re doing,” Pitchford said,” because there’s too much value and there’s (a) really big scope for it.”
Bowling denied Pitchford’s claim, however, telling VideoGamer.com that Infinity Ward will do something else “eventually” but that for the moment, the studio wants to tap the potential of the Modern Warfare games.
“When we feel like we can’t innovate any further in the Call of Duty franchise, then we’ll do something else. A lot of that mentality went into Modern Warfare 2. That’s why it’s Modern Warfare 2,” he said. “It is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, but you’ll never see that in game. We never call it that. It’s because we think of this as a new IP. This is our Modern Warfare 2 game. So we are constantly doing new stuff.”
“We’re doing stuff in this game that you’ve never seen before, which is awesome,” he continued. “We’re going to new locations in single player that you’ve never seen before. We innovate in our own way. But yeah, eventually we’ll do something else, and it will be fun and it will be awesome and it will be fresh and it will be great.”
At this point, however, that sort of long-term planning isn’t even on the table; he said the team is completely focused on Modern Warfare 2 and doesn’t even know what it’s next project will be. “Right now, 100 per cent of the team is dedicated on Modern Warfare 2,” he said. “Honestly, we have no clue what our next game is. I’m planning on taking a nap for three months. And then maybe I’ll wake up.”
Call me crazy but innovative or not, I’m betting that Modern Warfare will have something to do with it.
