No developer sets out to make a bad game. And Treyarch’sCall of Dutygames haven’t beenbadper se; 2008’sWorld at Warwas well received, but it didn’t garner the same critical acclaim as Infinity Ward’sCall of Dutytitles. At a recent preview event forCall of Duty: Black Ops, I asked Treyarch’s community manager, Josh Olin, about the studio’s unfortunate (and perhaps undeserved) reputation as the red-headed step-child of theCall of Dutyfranchise. I wondered if the team sawBlack Opsas their chance to say, ‘Hey, we can do just as good of a game as Infinity Ward!’
Olin explained that Treyarch had, of course, been trying to do that for a long time — but that certain circumstances had prevented them from doing so. He took me through the year 2008, in which the studio was working on three games at the same time:World at War, the James Bond film tie-inQuantum of Solace, andSpider-Man: Web of Shadows, all of which shipped within three weeks of each other. “Our studio had about 250 employees, and we were split across three different titles; it was kind of like […] spreading your butter too thin,” he told me. Since then, they’ve pretty much only been makingBlack Ops:
So after those games shipped, we refocused every single person at our studio on exclusivelyCall of Duty: Black Ops, with a small core team that still did someWorld at WarDLC. But the bulk of the team wasBlack Ops, and then when we wrapped our DLC, everybody was onBlack Ops.
Since development onBlack Opsbegan, Treyarch has had three separate teams — but they’ve been building “three pillars” of the same game:single-player, a separateco-opmode, andmultiplayer. “We put that investment up front — put our money where our mouth was,” proclaimed Olin, “and this is what’s going to come out in November, isBlack Ops.” Treyarch is throwing down the gauntlet with this one, and from the gameplay I’ve seen, theyshouldbe confident.
Call of Duty: Black Opswill launch for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, and Wii on July 17, 2025. (There will also be aDS “companion piece,”but it’s being developed by n-Space, and Olin called it a “different story set in theBlack Opsuniverse.”)
