I’m sorry, what?

My point was never about the developers. My point was that the development of this franchise is shared between two devs for a reason – it gives them more time to develope each title and keep the franchise being a yearly release.. If it’s not going to be Infinity Ward, it’ll be someone else, but they won’t put Treyarch on two titles at the same time.

Not to mention this is a rumour… and one I find hard to swallow, personally.

i think that MW3 is in the work

Exactly!

Which is why I don’t think that they will.

Trilogies. It’s about trilogies these days! (Yeah, I know, It’s actually no. 8… [or IW's 5th])

Anyway, I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see, but if IW don’t make MW3, I’d be very surprised to say the least.

Yes, ‘Casual’ consumers will be expecting MW3, but it’s a process that has needed 3 iterations to get people on board. That’s why the CoD name is still there, as I’ve already mentioned.

Also, if anything that further proves that it’s little to do with the developer involved, as long as it’s called MW? The quality of the game has already been established – most consumers will automatically assume that the sequel will be of similar quality – that’s how a franchise is successfully sustained: proof of quality.

CoD:WaW didn’t sell as many as CoD4 (14m to 11m, approx) because the modern setting is currently much more popular than the over-used WW2 background. It still shifted more units than any other game that year though, and I fully expect their next outing to do similar numbers. People certainly aren’t buying the game because of Treyarch’s name.

And yes, perhaps CM/FM was a bad example, but there are plenty more… Guitar Hero sequels, Far Cry 2, Star Wars KOTOR 2, Resident Evil sequels, etc etc. All of these games sold based on the name and reputation of the IP, not because of the developer involved.

If it did matter more, Acti wouldn’t swap CoD dev duties, Bioshock 2 wouldn’t have been taken away from 2K boston and given to two completely different studios.

I’m not trying to preach here, but I work in marketing in the industry, and trust me, the name of the game is far more important than that of the developer, unless your name is Bungie.

Sorry, but I have to disagree there.

I do agree to a certain extent that the majority don’t have a clue about a game beyond the name, but I am in an incredibly strong position to say that it’s definitely not just about the IP.

You can take it from me, as a very recently former Square Enix (formerly Eidos) employee (Beautiful Game Studios) that Championship Manager’s sales aren’t all that fantastic compared to FM’s. And largely due to the fact that SI fanboys have waged a campaign to destroy the brand. It’s not purely because of fanboy sabotage by any means, but it definitely makes a huge difference in terms of sales. To the extent that even though your game is getting 8′s and 9′s, people still refuse to buy it because of their loyalty to some developer.

Anyway, sure, WaW sold a lot, but still nowhere near CoD4 numbers. Also, that was largely off of the CoD name, and even though that remained on the box (in almost small print) for MW2, the official name is actually MW2.

Therefore, I think that most of those casuals who are looking for a sequel will be expecting MW3.

I kind of see what your saying, but then World at War wasn’t an IW product, and it wasn’t that great either, but it still sold 11m+ units worldwide. It doesn’t matter who develops MW3, the name alone will guarantee 10m+ copies.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter who develops a game from a strong IP, it’s the name that counts – the majority of gamers don’t know much about developers or publishers; they follow the IP – that’s why Championship Manager continues to sell shedloads despite being crap, as does Need for Speed, and it’s also why IW put the CoD moniker back on Modern Warfare 2 after removing it – people care about the game name.

1. CoD wasn’t one of the top 3 gaming IP’s in the world when 2 was released. It is now, and in these Bobby Kotick hating days, people know that it’s IW’s game.

2. Acti may be greedy rip off merchants, but they’re not 100% stupid.

Stick the initials ‘IW’ and the words ‘Modern Warfare’ on any box, and you’ve practically sold 10 million units.

Not trousers. lol.

Two points – Firstly, wouldn’t you have said the same about CoD before 3 was farmed out to Treyarch?

Secondly, IW are wholley owned by Activision, who have ultimately done exactly the same as they did after CoD2. Now IW can go off and make another killer IP that Acti can farm out for yearly distribution.

And so the cycle continues…

Pants! No, not the Pants?!

I love you guys, I really do.

Pants, thats just too much hehe

The profile page is broken, so most of us can’t get in either.

This story fails because it’s utter pants, and i could imagine Real Madrid giving away all their star players for free before Acti let IW walk away without doing MW3.

Rubbish.

Can I just say that if it is a canadian dev it may not be radical entertainment. It MIGHT be United Front Games. Acti are already working with them on True Crime after all.

BTW this is my first post and I’m new here so hi

I can see IW ‘pulling a Bungie’ and going independent soon. Activision are far too demanding.

The only way I see CoD being taken away from IW is if IW themself stops or if the talant leaves. Otherwise I see semi yearly releases of CoD and I see IW doing as many of them as they can.