Modern Warfare 3 Reportedly Crunched On For A Year And A Half

This year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3—the second game in the series to bear the moniker after 2011’s Modern Warfare 3—was reportedly crunched over the course of a year and a half. This “abridged production schedule,” which is half of the usual three-year development cycles these titles often require, is a likely factor in Modern Warfare 3‘s chilly reception, having been criticized for feeling incomplete and rushed, especially as far as its campaign is concerned.

As reported by Bloomberg, Modern Warfare 3‘s development was accelerated when the COD title that was supposed to launch this year was delayed, creating a gap in the series’ annual releases. Rushing to fill the gap, Modern Warfare 3 was then reportedly pitched as an expansion to 2022’s Modern Warfare 2 before it ballooned into a full-fledged game.

With the shortened schedule in mind, Modern Warfare 3 was reportedly being developed as a spinoff of the Modern Warfare series that was set in Mexico before being rebooted by Activision into a full-flung Modern Warfare game centering the series’ recurring villain Vladimir Makarov and the usual “globe-trotting escapades.” Over the course of the rushed and then rebooted development of Modern Warfare 3, many of the staff at Sledgehammer Studios were obligated to work overtime on nights and weekends in order to meet the game’s 2023 deadline. This came after promises to Sledgehammer that they wouldn’t have to make another title on a tight schedule, after having developed 2021’s Call of Duty: Vanguard under similar duress.

Development on Modern Warfare 3 was also murky and tedious for Sledgehammer. The team was reportedly unclear for several months at the beginning of development on whether or not the title was going to be a full “premium game.” Some developers who spoke to Bloomberg said they were outright told it was an expansion rather than a full sequel. Throughout the project, staff at Sledgehammer also expressed frustration at having to run things by Infinity Ward, the team responsible for the Modern Warfare series, and were regularly stalled while waiting on feedback before having to implement unwanted changes mandated by the latter team.

The result is a game whose campaign has been panned across the board for its lack of depth, brevity, and failure to innovate even as it pivoted away from the series’ heavily-scripted sequences into open-ended combat scenarios. Safe to say, it’s not the best foot to begin on as the first Activision-Blizzard release under Xbox’s stewardship. The release of Modern Warfare 3 also continues to call into question whether or not the decline in quality across COD titles will lead to a different approach in the series’ future.