You can find the full interview at
MCV.
Following the phenomenal success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is no easy task.
The game smashed sales records and outperformed other major entertainment brands, such as Avatar and Harry Potter. Six months after MW2 hit shelves, the FPS still has yet to fall out of the All Formats Top 10 – despite the wealth of blockbusters that has been released since.
But then again, following the original Modern Warfare was just as challenging, and Treyarch more than held their own. The studio’s 2008 hit Call of Duty: World At War more than doubled the week one sales of its predecessor and has gone on to sell over 11 million units worldwide.
With such a triumph under its belt, the pressure is on for Treyarch to shine again with this year’s Call of Duty outing, Black Ops.
Most of the pressure on the developer comes from within. The team has been pushing itself to deliver a title worthy of the Call of Duty brand that also redefines what consumers can expect from the multi-million selling series.
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“We’re always trying to make the best game we can possibly make, and Black Ops really is the best title Treyarch has ever created,” says Josh Olin, the studio’s community manager.
“Modern Warfare 2 was an extremely successful entertainment launch, and yeah it ratcheted the bar up for us. But every Call of Duty has done the same for the ones that follow it, so we’re just ratcheting up that bar one step further.
“It motivates us to do better work, and our focus has always been on doing the best work we can, as well as pleasing the fans.
“It’s a huge game. It’s got an epic, deep single-player campaign, an awesome dedicated co-operative mode and an extremely deep and rich multiplayer mode.”
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Black Ops won’t only have to match the success of its forebears. Several publishing giants are gunning for Activision’s FPS crown this Christmas, including EA with Medal of Honor and Take-Two with Spec Ops: The Line – as well as Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier in early 2011.
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“There’s a lot of great competition,” Olin concedes. “But Black Ops is going to stand out in true Call of Duty fashion.
“People generally identify Call of Duty as a leading franchise for shooters in general, they see them as really well produced titles. When they see Black Ops, they’re going to see a really well-wrapped product and I think it’s going to exceed their expectations.”
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Another advantage Black Ops has going for it is its rarely-visited setting. With the battlefields of World War II and more contemporary conflicts, the newest Call of Duty puts players on the frontlines of the Cold War.
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“The Cold War is something that hasn’t really been done in the Call of Duty series – or games in general for that matter,” says Olin.
“A lot of people have this misconception about the Cold War being just that: a cold war. They believe there was no conflict. But while we were researching this, we began to learn about these deniable operations that black ops teams would go on all around the world.
“We discovered these stories of key missions that struck us as fascinating gameplay possibilities, and Call of Duty: Black Ops will really capture that really awesome, intense black operations spirit of the Cold War.”
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Check at more of the interview on
MCV.
MCV Interview With Josh Olin
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