STACK #121 Nov 2015

GAMES

FEATURE

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Michael Condrey, co-founder of Sledgehammer Games, tells STACK he’s excited about the studio’s first full game.

L ast year, Infinity Ward attempted to inject fresh enthusiasm into the Call of Duty franchise with Ghosts , a game that featured a new campaign setting and a handful of multiplayer modifications. But the series was already showing signs of fatigue, and while gamers still fronted up at the cash register to buy it, sales were down; the consensus being that Ghosts was just another CoD by numbers. Eyes have indeed now turned to the next game in the franchise, that, like it or not, is going to be measured in the make or break stakes. No pressure then, Sledgehammer Games. The initial difference between Advanced Warfare and its predecessors – aside from being the first CoD title to be built from the ground up for PS4 and Xbox One – is that the studio was granted the luxury of a three year development cycle. “We looked at the opportunity Activision gave us with three years to develop this game, and are incredibly thankful that we were given the charter to usher in the first true next gen Call of Duty game,” says Sledgehammer co-founder Michael Condrey. “A three year development cycle was unprecedented for this franchise; we’ve been working in games for a long time and this is the first time we’ve had three years to create a game [and] we came out of the game

determined to use every single one of those days to deliver something special.” Of course, Sledgehammer have prior experience working on the series. The studio was drafted in to co-develop Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 3 following the mass exodus of Jason West, Vince Zampella and a large number of developers. It was the perfect job interview, and Activision duly rewarded the studio with its very own project. Despite the non-existence of next-gen three years ago, the decision was made to build the game with this hardware in mind.

telling our story, creating our future world, and making the big moments that define a Call of Duty game. “Fortunately, our target specs were pretty accurate, and we continued to refine them as new information was shared, giving us solid confidence that our new engine and techniques would set a new bar for Call of Duty, while running rock steady at 60fps.” It’s been seven years since Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – a game that remains a classic – rewrote the industry guidelines for a blockbuster and created a formula still adhered to by the big publishers on an annual basis. Condrey says he doesn’t feel encumbered with the weight of responsibility of getting CoD back on track and into the hearts of gamers, instead claiming that the challenge forced the studio to raise its own benchmark and strive to make the best game yet. A good part of that was listening to the fans. “We heard loud and clear from fans that they love what makes Call of Duty great, but they also demanded innovation and new ways to play, so as the first new lead studio for Activision in more than a decade, we took the opportunity to bring our new ideas to the franchise; we wanted to leave the Sledgehammer Games mark on it,” Condrey says.

A three year development cycle was unprecedented for this franchise.

“We began development on Advanced Warfare immediately after we shipped Call of Duty: MW3 , and at that time the next gen hardware was still more than two years out,” explains Condrey. “We built PCs that we believed to be the closest target spec for next- gen, and used pre-production to focus first on

NOVEMBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.com.au

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