Shooter drama
Call of Dutyis one of the most successful video game franchises of all-time, and it has made billions of dollars for its publisher Activision. But it’s another publisher, Electronic Arts, that unknowingly helped bring it to life.
In an interview withIGN,Call of Dutyco-founder Vince Zampella explained how EA overplayed its hand and pushed his team to create a new military shooter. In 2002, Zampella was at developer 2015 Inc., the studio that madeMedal of Honor: Allied Assault. It performed well enough that EA took an interest in buying 2015 Inc.
Zampella said “EA wanted to pull it in-house so they forced us to try to come be part of EA. We didn’t want to do that. They tried to strong-arm us a little bit. Once they tried to strong-arm us, we decided we don’t want to be part of EA — as a team, we decided that wasn’t what we set out to do.”
In addition to declining EA’s offer, Zampella tried to one-up the publisher. He admitted that when he co-founded Infinity Ward,Call of Dutywas an attempt to bestMedal of Honor. It was “a little bit [of a ‘fuck you’ to EA]” Zampella relented.
That “little bit of a fuck you” obviously turned into a giant “fuck you.”Call of Dutyessentially killedMedal of Honor; even though there were several installments afterAllied Assault, they were overshadowed by Infinity Ward’s work and mostly second-rate by comparison. It did, however, open the door forBattlefieldto become EA’s signature shooter, a series that is still going strong today. But, if EA hadn’t gotten pushy back in the early 2000s, there’s a fair chanceCall of Dutywouldn’t exist.
Call of Duty Created As ‘A Little Bit’ Of An F-You To Medal Of Honor – IGN Unfiltered[IGN]
