What? No Recent Warfare?

There's been a lack of news regarding the Activision/former Infinity Ward employees lawsuit, but recently there have been some developments that might be hinting on the future of the Call of Duty franchise as far as Activision is concerned.

Part of the lawsuit involves contention over the Modern Warfare name, what I consider an important part of moving forward if either party continues with shooter games. Recently though, Activision has registered domain names for possible titles Future Warfare, Space Warfare, Secret Warfare, and Advanced Warfare. Could this be a sign of their intentions or possibly branching off from the franchise? Shooters are a dime a dozen these days and with Activision having projects underway with Sledgehammer Games, Raven Software, and a dismantled but functioning Infinity Ward, it makes me wonder if the Call of Duty title will become the new Guitar Hero, slapped on any piece of shooter shovelware that's pushed out the door.

When the dispute over the Modern Warfare license first broke, the first thing I thought of was the implications if Activision were to lose it. With Call of Duty: World at War's zombie DLC being received fairly well, it's evident Activision could take the franchise into alternative history styles like Wolfenstein or Freedom Fighters, a personal favorite from the PS2. With Future Warfare and Space Warfare, it seems they may be shedding their realistic base and going more into the direction of Halo and other sci-fi shooters, which is interesting considering their new partnership with Bungie. When it comes to space warfare though, a certain Lombax already has that market cornered in my heart.

The titles of Secret Warfare and Advanced Warfare lend themselves to a more traditional interpretation though. Secret Warfare would fit in with the announced Call of Duty: Black Ops, focusing more on a stealth style of gameplay. Advanced Warfare might as well be Recent Warfare. There's tons of interpretations that could be taken from the title, whether it be expanding on strategy and supply drops to a not-quite-future style.

The move into spin-offs for the Call of Duty franchise may be a way for Activision to mitigate damage done to the development cycle. While litigation is pending, it would be unwise to release a Modern Warfare 3 unless they feel comfortable paying out royalty checks. However, if Activision fails to release a new title annually, the fickle minds of the shooter masses will easily forget it. It didn't take long for the bugs of Modern Warfare 2 to send gamers over to Battlefield once it was released. If the new titles end up being garbage software to fill a time table though, it will have seriously damaging effects on the brand of Call of Duty. It's taken a while for the stigma of being a WWII shooter to wear off and right now they run the risk of running the IP into the ground.

Interesting Times indeed...

Anyone who pays much attention to video games beyond the store shelf is probably aware of the current fiasco with publishing juggernaut Activision. Almost all of the internet already hated CEO Bobby Kotick for his public comments on "taking the fun out of making video games" and talk of releasing games as part of TV peripheral hardware rather than console software. Activision's unpopular reputation as of late has only been worsened with the legal suits and dismissals between the publisher and members of developer studio Infinity Ward. Many employees have already resigned and found a new home in Respawn Entertainment, created by Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella in partnership with EA games. While the controversy continues to storm, Bungie Software recently announced a ten year deal with Activision, leaving many to collectively reply with "WTF?"

Details have emerged with the Bungie/Activision deal revealing what could possibly be an interesting new trend between developers and publishers, retaining the rights of an intellectual property. Part of the drama surrounding the Activision/former-IW members law suits is the ownership of the Modern Warfare title. For the casual gamer, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a game that made $1 billion in two months, the title is simply Modern Warfare 2. Modern Warfare is the brand and the title is a key part in ensuring the success of a sequel. It has a reputation when it comes to multiplayer gaming, just as among many solid platforming games, Mario is the most recognizable. But with Respawn participating in EA Partners and Bungie's deal giving them the rights of the new IP, what we're seeing now in the game industry is the beginning of a movement which has affected other industries from comics to film: the ability for the creator to own their ideas.

Every creator has the dream of coming up with the next Harry Potter, Mario, or James Bond, that timeless concept that goes on to have them swimming in money like Scrooge McDuck. Their idea is their baby, and they don't want to just hand it over to let them do what they will. As more and more creators start standing up and keeping their babies, we'll see some very interesting things happen:

• BETTER QUALITY GAMEPLAY - How many times has a game been passed on to another studio and you felt that it just wasn't as good? Sure, the Knights of the Old Republic games are both solid titles, but what about Spyro the Dragon? Insomniac Games' baby hasn't had the chance to bounce back yet.

• BETTER QUALITY STORY - It's a lot easier to tell when a series was put together by the same people. Compare the pre-Christopher Nolan Batman movies. If you handed someone Batman Returns and Batman Forever who didn't know much about Batman before, they wouldn't really know what's going on. The Jak and Daxter Precurser trilogy has that pay off where those of us who were with them for the whole ride really got to see the big picture in the end.
  

• DEVELOPERS WHO CARE ABOUT THE FINISHED PRODUCT - Not to say that an employee can't care about what they're doing just because they didn't create it or own it, but it's clear to see with franchises like Guitar Hero where it was just being shoveled onto the market. A lot of emphasis is placed on the yearly cycle of releasing a game, but as GTA4 showed everyone, if you put out a quality product, people will wait for it.

Creator ownership is a trend I want to see continue and expand, not just as someone who likes to create something, but as a consumer. You get the best thing you can get when people care about it. Congratulations to both Bungie and Respawn because those are the first steps to stand out and bring us into what I think are going to be some very interesting times.