The announcement of Call of Duty: WWII has gone pretty darn well for Activision. The fan reaction to Call of Duty’s return to World War II has been so positive, you can't help but imagine developer Sledgehammer Games was super into the idea from day one. Apparently, that wasn’t the case.

Sledgehammer co-founders Michael Condrey and Glen Schofield recently sat down for an interview at the currently-ongoing GamesBeat Summit, and they painted a picture of a studio divided between those who wanted to return to World War II and those who thought Advanced Warfare 2 was the way to go.

Ultimately, it all came down to a vote…

“At Sledgehammer Games, we believe that developers have to have passion for what they’re doing. You want them to be invested in the vision and the game itself to get the best out of them. Every Call of Duty game we’ve done for Activision, we’ve taken it to a team vote. You usually don’t get a majority the first time, so you talk through the issues and the opportunities, and you address questions.

As many of you might know, when we first we started on Call of Duty eight years ago, we weren't on Modern Warfare 3, we were on a different game. We had to take a vote then, and [we did with Call of Duty: WWII as well]. Having just shipped Advanced Warfare, we were really proud of that game. Did we want to do a sequel to that, or did we want to return to the roots of the franchise? And we wanted that to be a studio decision.”

Well, thank goodness that vote ultimately went the right way. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was generally well received, but doing another futuristic game after Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare? That probably wouldn’t have been pretty. Of course, the team at Sledgehammer couldn’t have known the futuristic Call of Duty backlash was coming when they voted on what game to make three years ago!

Posted: May 03, 2017 8:56 am
Related Forum: Call of Duty Forum

Source: http://wwg.com/2017/05/02/call-of-duty-wwii-almost-advanced-warfare-2/