Kotaku: activision underground

Third-Person Call Of Duty Game Cancelled Because It Was "A Mess"

Luke Plunkett — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:30:00 MDT

So the rumour's been SMASHED. Activision Underground, who were supposedly working on a third-person Call of Duty game, weren't closed down because of a non-existent "exclusivity" deal Infinity Ward signed with Activision. And yet, closed down they were. Why? Maybe for reasons a little less eye-catching. Somebody "close" to Activision Underground has got in touch with us, and let us know that the studio was indeed at work on a third-person action-adventure CoD, which would have been based on special ops forces and would feature "very different kinds of gameplay". Only problem was, the game turned out to be, well, a big ol' pile of crap.

Our source says that its mechanics "were a mess", the story was "terrible" and that "it took every cliché you hated from every other squad-based military shooter and stuffed it into COD". Ouch. Apparently the game was cancelled - and the studio closed down - soon after it was first shown to Infinity Ward & Activision, who "had a fit" at what they'd seen. For what it's worth, fingers are being pointed at the game's creative director, who "hired a team of utter beginners and tossed the project to them without any metrics or direction".

Infinity Ward To Become Sole Call Of Duty Dev?

Luke Plunkett — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:40:00 MDT

Next-Gen are reporting that, according to an ex-Activision employee, Call of Duty 4 developers Infinity Ward have signed a deal with Activision which ensures that every Call of Duty game will herein by developed by the series' creators. As it stands, development duties are split between Infinity Ward (CoD1, 2 & 4) and Treyarch (CoD3 & 5), but the new deal will mean that only Infinity Ward will be allowed to develop games which carry the Call of Duty name. The agreement will kick in once Treyarch have finished Call of Duty 5, and interestingly, has affected not only the core CoD series, but a rumoured spin-off franchise as well.

The same ex-Activision staffer also claims that Activision Underground, an Acti studio that was closed last week, was shut down due to the agreement. See, Underground were apparently working on a third-person, action-adventure Call of Duty title, that was intended to be the first of an annual series of games, which would have given Activision an excuse to churn out multiple CoD releases in a single year. However, since the rumoured deal now grants IW exclusivity over the IP, Activision shut the spin-off down, and the studio with it.
Source: Infinity Ward Reclaims Call of Duty [Next-Gen]