Editor’s Note: Activision could not supply a spokesperson for this article, as "The team is head down in development." E-mails to PlayStation were not returned.
When Call of Duty was first announced for PlayStation Vita, it signaled a promising future of solid third-party support for Sony’s new handheld, as well as an acknowledgment that big franchises traditionally played in the console space could be instrumental in getting fresh hardware into the wild. Indeed, it could have been easily looked at as validation of Vita itself, as the largest game publisher on the planet was ready to bring the biggest gaming series in the world to PSP’s successor.
But then, there was silence. The next time we heard about the iteration of Call of Duty’s set for release on Vita was at E3. It was there that the game was given a name, but suspiciously, no footage was shown. Indeed, apart from the game’s logo, not a single screenshot was to be found, either. And perhaps most alarmingly, no one even knew who its developer was. Mind you, the game was slated to come out in under six months at that point.
In other words, something was up.
It was obvious. Sony wasn’t necessarily trying to hide something outright, but it was certainly doing its best to keep chatter of the game alive while giving players as little information as possible. Activision was complicit, too. By the time we actually saw it running – at Sony’s Gamescom press conference -- it was a mere three months or so away from being released.
This series of events should concern you. Anyone who follows the industry even remotely knows that this is exceptionally unusual for a big game that folks behind the scenes are confident in. The Vita is struggling and Call of Duty could single-handedly save it in the west. But neither Sony nor Activision has been all too eager to show the game off, and you have to ask yourself a single question constructed of only one word: why?
This series of events should concern you.
There are multiple possible answers to this question, paramount among them circling around who’s developing the game. Perhaps Sony would have been more inclined to reveal earlier that Nihilistic Software was behind Black Ops Declassified, but after the walloping its last game took critically, it’s no surprise it recoiled in fear. As we pointed out earlier this week, Nihilistic’s last two games – Resistance: Burning Skies and PlayStation Move Heroes – aren’t exactly considered the cream of the crop. And Sony and Activision knew that revealing the developer too early could spell bad news with the press and the gaming masses alike.
Nihilistic’s last two games... aren’t exactly considered the cream of the crop.
Typically, big games result in their teams being portrayed as equally big deals. When you think of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, you think of Todd Howard and his squad at Bethesda Game Studios. The word BioShock doesn’t only conjure up thoughts of a great, ambient FPS, but of Irrational Games and its lead designer, Ken Levine. Even Call of Duty itself draws up constant comparisons between the two studios most responsible for its commercial greatness – Infinity Ward and Treyarch – and some of the biggest names that work or have worked there are household names (if your household is especially nerdy). An approach like this isn’t unusual. In fact, it’s common, and becoming increasingly more so as the men and women behind the games we know and love come to the fore, like actors, directors and producers on television shows and movies.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified should have been a big game with a prominent team behind it. But it’s not. And Sony and Activision clearly aren’t excited about who’s developing it or what the game’s all about. So why should you be?
A post on the PlayStation Blog written by Activision’s community manager Dan Amrich illustrates rather well how completely detached Activision is from the Vita iteration of its biggest franchise. Responding to user comments on the blog, Amrich repeatedly states that not only had he never played the game before it was revealed (and still hasn’t), but that he hasn't even seen more of the game than the trailer. That’s right: Activision’s own community manager has seen as much of Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified as you have, and he basically knows as much about it as you do.
Activision’s own community manager has seen as much of Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified as you have...
When asked about zombies in the game, he says, “I don’t know if zombies is part of the Vita experience or not yet; I don’t see anything in the trailer, and that is what I have to go on, like you.” When asked what the game’s framerate will be, he says, “I have not seen the game running and I do not know what the framerate will be.” When asked when the game will specifically be coming out – the word is November of this year – he can’t even confirm if it will come out in 2012 at all, stating, “They have not stated a specific date, but it’s supposed to be this year, I believe.”
When asked about connectivity with Activition’s subscription-based Call of Duty Elite service, he says “...I do not know if Elite works with Declassified at all, I will ask.” And when asked if Declassified will somehow interact or connect with Black Ops 2 on PlayStation 3, he says, “I don’t know anything about interactivity with the console game.”
...Nihilistic Software is releasing two shooters on the PlayStation Vita within six months of each other.
And finally, when a user says to Amrich that he “Unfortunately... cannot trust a game made by such a low caliber developer,” Amrich answers with this: “Totally understood – in fact, was never misunderstood. :) Everybody looks at stuff and makes up their own mind. That’s how it always works, and I never tell people they have to like what they see. With this article, I’m not saying it will be good or bad – I’m saying it will be out in November.”
In other words, Activision’s own spokesman doesn’t know anything about the game, and he can’t even step up to the plate and vouch for its quality level because, somehow, he’s never seen it.
Apart from Activision’s community manager's perceived ignorance about a game he should be an authority on, this conundrum brings up another interesting point closer to Sony’s family of developers: Nihilistic Software is releasing two shooters on the PlayStation Vita within six months of each other. Gamers are expected to believe that a small studio like Nihilistic will somehow complete both titles within that six month span, and that one, the other or both haven’t or won’t suffer. Burning Skies’ major deficits actually make more sense now – the studio probably had to move on to Call of Duty with all due haste – but it makes you wonder if Black Ops Declassified, in turn, will suffer the same mediocre fate that Burning Skies did. (And as an aside, it’s a shame that this is being done to Nihilistic, who is surely capable of putting out a quality game if only given the time and resources to do so.)
The problem here, though, is that Resistance doesn’t hold nearly the same cachet and level of industry-wide importance as Call of Duty does. And a dud of a Call of Duty game – which, if its barebones multiplayer offering is any indication, it could be on its way to being – can be injurious to both the Call of Duty name as well as to the PlayStation Vita.
...a dud of a Call of Duty game... can be injurious to both the Call of Duty name as well as to the PlayStation Vita.
I haven’t played Black Ops Declassified, so I can’t say for sure how it’s shaping up or what kind of quality will ultimately be rendered in the final product. But I have learned a bit from history. I was one of the very first people outside of Sony and Nihilistic to play Burning Skies when it was first revealed at Gamescom last year, and I was lulled into an overconfident posture about the game based on a brief, slick and polished demo. But the more I saw of the game, the less impressed I became, and the final product speaks for itself.
I’m also not a big Call of Duty fan, but I readily recognize the importance of the franchise both on its own and for the PlayStation Vita. The fact that none of Activision’s internal studios are working on the game is strange. The fact that Sony and Activision stuck an unproven developer onto the project is stranger still. And the fact that Activision’s own community manager – the man they sent into the wild to talk about the game – knows absolutely nothing about it ups the weirdness ante.
But what’s perhaps strangest of all is that both companies seem oblivious to the repercussions of their decisions, especially considering Sony shut down Zipper Interactive -- a shooter-specializing studio it already owned -- earlier this year. That studio probably would have been more up to the task, eagerly looking for redemption after SOCOM 4's poor community reception even if it had to stray away from the comfort of third-person shooters and do something slightly different.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified could have and should have been a complementary version of the same or similar game found on the PlayStation 3 version of Black Ops 2. It should have been a way to play the same seamless experience on the go (something EA also declined to take advantage of with Madden 13). Instead, Call of Duty’s bread and butter – online multiplayer – has been reduced to accommodate eight players max, and beyond that, you can assume based on the perceived nature of Nihilistic Software’s development cycle that this simply cannot be the game it has the potential to be.
Even though it likely needs much more time to incubate, Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified will no doubt come out this fall and on time. And hopefully, I’m proven wrong. I hope it’s an amazing game that shuts me up and keeps me playing for months during my morning and evening commutes. But I’m not confident this will be the case. And if it’s not, I hope Sony and Activision realize the potential damage this can cause not only to Call of Duty as a brand, but to PlayStation Vita as a struggling handheld that needs a bona fide, triple-A console experience. Not another afterthought.
Colin Moriarty is an IGN PlayStation editor. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN and learn just how sad the life of a New York Islanders and New York Jets fan can be.
Source : ign[dot]com
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