Activision's Heller: Call Of Duty: World At War Benefited From Internal CoD Competition

Author: by Staff

Talking to Gamasutra as part of an in-depth new interview, Activision senior producer Noah Heller has been discussing working with Infinity Ward to make Treyarch's Call Of Duty: World At War, suggesting that it's "gratifying" to compete internally to make the best game in the series -- noting that "we both win if we make a great product." According to Heller, the two Activision-owned studios traded builds while developing their respective Call of Duty titles and reviewed each other's work, as was the case with Call of Duty: World at War and its predecessor Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. "The engine is an Activision platform, something that we can all use," he says. "From a design perspective we don't want to step on each other's creativity, and the Treyarch team has its own insular design force." Heller adds, "It's awesome that we're able to trade and we're able to do a Call of Duty game this year. They were able to do one last year, because on Call of Duty 3, it was nine months in the pipeline to get that game done, and no team should ever have to work like that. He believes that Activision's current system for the Call of Duty series is "really healthy," as it allows the studios two years to work on their projects. Heller also noted that there is internal competition between Treyarch and Infinity Ward, especially because their releases are often compared to each other. "It's tough, but at the end of the day, we're all Activision," he says. "A great Call of Duty game just opens up opportunities to do other great things with Call of Duty." He continues, "Frankly, it's more gratifying to compete internally than it is against any other company, because at the end of the day, we both win if we make a great product." Infinity Ward's director of communications/community manager Robert Bowling, however, recently lambasted Heller for repeatedly referencing Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare in interviews for World at War, suggesting that it was poor form to make comparisons to CoD4 in promoting CoD5. You can read the full in-depth interview with Treyarch senior producer Noah Heller on the upcoming release of Call Of Duty: World At War (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from other websites).