Thu, Sep 22, 2011 | 08:04 BST
Infinity ward “doesn’t care” about sales numbers for MW3
Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling has stated that he simply does not care about sales numbers. As gamers call shenanigans (a sentiment surely shared by Activision bigwigs), Bowling tries to explain himself out of that one.
What he means is, in a recent interview with IGN Australia, “Our 100 per cent focus is making a game that we’re going to love to play, that we’re going to be proud of, and that we know that our fans are going to play.”
Whether those fans number in the single digits matters not to Bowling: “We don’t care if there are three people playing it or 30 million people playing it. If there are three people having a great time then we’ve done our job correctly and we will be happy.”
As Blue points out, they’d be happy in the unemployment queue, but that’s beside the point.
The rest of the interview (which I promise is less cynical than I am) covers more behind-the-scenes gossip at the Infinity Ward studio, working together with Sledgehammer, and just how the company survived the uncertainty that followed founders West and Zampella’s departure last year.
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Posted in: Activision Blizzard
Tags: call of duty: modern warfare 3, infinity ward, modern warfare 3, robert bowling
13 comments
#1
Edo
22/09/11, 8:17 am
Old news.
#2
XaosWolf
22/09/11, 8:25 am
“-and that we know that our fans are going to play.”
He DOES realise it’s a Call of Duty game, right?
And even if he’d be happy with fans in the single digits, his employers would be pissed. =P
#3
Hybridpsycho
22/09/11, 8:36 am
lol
Activision does though, and come on. It’s Call of Duty, he doesn’t have to make a good game for people to buy it.
#4
endgame
22/09/11, 9:30 am
I can’t believe that they actually thing we’re so incredibly stupid as to believe something like this. This just shows how much respect they have for the gamers in general and who their core audience is.
#5
Zana
22/09/11, 9:36 am
Of course they don’t care. They won’t get paid anyway.
#6
Maximum Payne
22/09/11, 9:45 am
@5 I lol’d.
#7
Erthazus
22/09/11, 10:00 am
@5, SCHWING!
#8
MadFingerz
22/09/11, 10:29 am
HAHA bullshit. If there were only 3 people playing there’s no way in hell you would be happy. Nor would it mean that you’ve done your job correctly. Trolling this guy is.
#9
endgame
22/09/11, 11:28 am
aaah I’ve just realized it was the Bowling dude who said that so, yeah, now I’m not amazed anymore. the boy’s been Bobby’s slut since the IW has stopped being IW. hell he probably even sold those two to Kottick. never underestimate what a slut would do for money.
#10
K-V-C
22/09/11, 11:52 am
well if they didnt care about sales then they simply wouldnt be releasing every call of duty game every year simply put they love the money !!!!!
#11
JeRicHoOL
22/09/11, 12:21 pm
Does it really matter if they care or do not care for sales? It’s obvious they do care. It’s a business. We all care about sales because that assures our earnings. Use common sense guys instead of taking every word, a developer says, with a pinch of salt. It seems like some of you are just waiting for Activision/IW/Treyarch to make a statement or interview so you can try to turn it into as much negativity as possible. How ridiculous, really.
#3
People don’t buy/play Call of Duty because that’s what it reads on the game cover. People buy and play it because they like a fast-paced FPS. When will narrow-minded people like you actually get that? Just because you dislike/hate the franchise does not make it a bad game for others.
#12
Dimaco
23/09/11, 4:45 pm
@5 ROFL!
#13
DSB
23/09/11, 5:04 pm
Or maybe they don’t care about sales because they don’t have to. When the records you’re trying to beat are your own, it can’t be anywhere near as interesting.