Infinity Ward snubbed 'ridiculous' MW2 budget

The studio behind this year's biggest game was offered a "ridiculous" development budget from the world's biggest publisher; a budget big enough for the team to politely decline.

In the first half of an extensive interview with Develop, Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling revealed the extent in which Activision was willing to go to ensure Modern Warfare 2 hits its marks.

"Early on – when we decided to make a sequel – Activision estimated out a ridiculous budget. And we were like: 'No, we don't need that'," he said.

[Alcon Caper]

Tell tale sign of a champion developer.

[Greywulf]

Why would you invest more money, when you can make a 1.5 version and get 2.5 million pre-orders confirmed, hike the PC price, remove PC dedicated servers, and add flying papers?

I mean, you guys act like its a problem. Yet are the first people in line to play these unremarkable map pack + story updates.

I don't like the trend of Developers/Publishers taking gamers IQ's for granted, but god damn you guys are proving them right.

I used to laugh at a single device to play Duty & Rockband.. but its not funny anymore. Its getting closer and closer to reality. I just hope that we still have pockets of resistance in the form of developers that really do want to make the best game they can for gamers around the world, not just cash the biggest check.

[nycredude]

I respectfully disagree. They should have taken the budget and deliver us a game on a new engine that didn't look like last gen and lasted a decent length. I am proud to say that i will be one of many who will not purchase this crap day one. There will be plenty in the used bins shortly after release, since the single player is only 4-6 hours probably.

[PLAYINB3YOND]

hang on didn't they say earlier Activision didn't know anything about MW2 until very late in development? They've just told us they were in talks with activison about budget for the game, budgets are done before development starts not half way.

[Carl1412]

Maybe they should have accepted it. Then maybe they could have not cut a ton of features from the game, and maybe improved their engine somewhere too.

[UltimateIdiot911]

Does a champion go around messing with the PC community? Does a champion stick with old engine and hike prices? Does a champion force P2P on the PC gamers?

No, Infinity Ward may have some good ideas and all but they are far from champion. The problem with Infinity Ward is that they are too proud and becoming arrogant. I rather IW took that money and use it to make MW2 better than to say no, because we're great.

[Elvfam511]

stupidest Developer's out there

Any other Dev would of take it and made the game better

Edit @below

If they going by that then I don't know
I can't respect that at all
Dev's should go in and try to make a memorable game
and thinking money second

[Greywulf]

Theres no reason to improve it, if you are already guaranteed sales by your demographic.

[GentleGiant]

Good point mate, Seems like IW has two faces.

[pangitkqb]

I have heard out of Infinity Ward this quarter.

[Alcon Caper]

you guys are stupid to think that more money is all you need to make a game "better."

They are on the verge of releasing one of the most addictive, most played, most diverse first person shooters of all time and all you can think about is how it's just not up to snuff because they didn't
"take the money?"

You guys obviously have no respect whatesoever for the vision of process and development for games. MONEY DOESN'T MAKE GAMES BETTER. DEVELOPERS MAKE GAMES BETTER.

Prime example: Give a ton of development money to a company like, say, I don't know...Factor 5 and see how LAIR becomes one of the biggest flops this generation.

Infinity Ward has already made one of the greatest FPS's of all time. When you get to that level, it's beyond "bells and whistles."

Just look at Blizzard. Their games aren't of "top quality" graphics, but their games are unmatched.

Money isn't everything.

[Rock Bottom]

Think about it for a second, you have those great developer who can produce a great game with the little amount of money they have. Now give them more money and a bigger team and ask them to make the same game except with less bugs, longer story mode, more maps and better graphics.

To think that more money is a bad thing is more stupid than thinking money alone can make a great game... Not really, but it's almost there. :)

Also, while Blizzard games are awesome without the graphic they do spend enormousness amounts of money on them, they just do it on a longer period of time, that's why most of their games takes four or more years under development.

[Alcon Caper]

I'm sure they DID utilize more money, a bigger team, and better graphics, so I don't know what you're saying there... the ARTICLE says that Activision estimated out a "ridiculous" budget.

In any good business model, you have a general budget that is typically balanced and complete in its entirety. When someone throws, say three times as much as you had originally planned (ridiculous amount), into this business model, you can't just expand the model. You have to rethink everything.

Now take a model that is HUGELY successful (Call of Duty 4) and build off of that (much like God of War built off of their already existing model). Why would you want to rethink everything, when what you have is still incredibly popular today? It's an unnecessary gamble.

I NEVER said money was BAD, thanks for putting words in my mouth. I DID say however, that money alone doesn't make a game better.

“Much like we don’t let ourselves get distracted by hype, if you have excess you feel like you should use excess,” he said.

“So we said ‘let us design a game the way we’d always design a game. And let us focus on that.’ So we didn’t let the budget affect our mentality. We would only put stuff in the game that is right for the game, and not because we can.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Bowling discusses how extraordinarily high expectations affect the development process, admitting to the pressures placed on the studio with Modern Warfare 2.

But Bowling added: “very early on we decided to shelter ourselves from being distracted by the hype. We are focusing on making a game that we can be proud of and our fans will like. We approached it like we would any other game.”

You guys don't seem to like clicking on the actual article to read what the developer says. It's very difficult to refuse money, but what he did, he did for the good of the game.

@ nycredude - Find me one copy of Call of Duty 4 in any bin... that this is still selling for $40.00 at Gamestop, USED.

[ABizzel1]

And that's why EA is knock on Activision's door with Battlefield Bad Company 2.

[Ateanboy]

So you're trying to tell me that Ward settled for a much more modest budget from Activision than the "rediculous" one that was first offered and these clowns STILL managed to find a reason or excuse to over-price the damn game!?!?!?!?!? Unbelievable...

I honestly dont get it... I was under the impression that a bigger budget would've resulted in the higher price...

[Alcon Caper]

activision, not IW, published the game, therefore had the final say on the price.

[ambientFLIER]

"Maybe they should have accepted it. Then maybe they could have not cut a ton of features from the game, and maybe improved their engine somewhere too."

Please tell me about all these cut features...I'm curious.

[Sibs]

So remind me again, why do we need a price hike Kotick?

Running out of excuses...

[Ravage27]

those idiots refused a bigger budget which they could have used to replace the aging COD4 engine AND provide dedicated servers.

Instead, they decide to do a rehash and INCREASE the price.

No gamer in the right mind should welcome a smaller dev budget, you pay the same price regardless (ok i forgot those @$$****s increased it) but get less in return.

[Digital-_-Smoke]

Infinity ward is so greeeeeeeedy its disgusting
OKE you make one of the most played multiplayers off all time, you make a zillion profit, yet you don't want to give us gamers a big thanks by creating I DONT KNOW MAYBE A NEW FRIGGIN ENGINE ??? and still the game is 640p like the last one.
And don't even get me started about how they raped PC gamers by not supporting dedicated servers.

Still ima buy this game because im addicted

[El_Colombiano]

"Still ima buy this game because im addicted"

It's sad to know that you are followed by millions of others.

[DK_Kithuni_71]

At least not at full price. This feels like a Michael Jacokson re-release to me. Too little, too late. I am a PS3 owner so I am spoiled. I expect more of everything.

I have no problems finding the cash for day one buys of Killzone 2, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time. This list could go on but those are the 3 I prefer this year. Great games, nothing more, nothing less. Well worth my hard-earned cash.

Other games can be found in the bargain bin. Just bought Bioshock, Dead Space and The Orange Box. All 3 games for less totally than I had to pay for every one of the above games. Modern Warefare 2 may be a bargain buy for me but I am not giving those greedy pricks full price.

[Kleptic]

MW1 and MW2 are something around 1160 X 600...its 600p, not 640...that was halo 3...

irrelevant though...the engine is still pretty good...MUCH better than UE3...has decent lighting, and decent character models/animation...it was easily the best looking shooter on consoles 2 years ago...and is only truely topped right now by killzone 2 (console wise, not bringing crysis into this)...

its not just money when building a new engine...or heavily updating an existing one...IW would have to hire all kinds more people to finish it in the same 2 year window...which is most likely something they didn't have time to do in itself, let alone finishing the new foundation...

I get the hate towards MW2 because of activisions...as a publisher, Acti is easily the worst one around right now...but IW is still one of the best developers in the industry...cod 4 was great...community wise, IW has a lot to learn from Bungie (and arguably Guerrilla too, who did a great job of giving killzone 2 what it needed after release...not to mention the ridiculously well done clan support and tourney system)...

MW2 will be great too...leave it alone...the engine is far from 'bad'...and the gameplay is so addictive you won't even notice...I too will wait and buy mw2 used, but thats because of Activision, and all the other great games out now...not because of IW...

[BYE]

I tell you why they don't do it.

Because people like you and others who buy these games no matter what, don't deserve an improvement.

You answered it to yourself actually, with buying it 'anyway' you support the developer's strategy.

[wildcat]

For a sequel, it makes more sense to simply improve aspects of your engine, since it's already up and running, and focus on gameplay, features etc... Maybe if your engine was atrocious and poorly programmed, but the COD4 engine ran pretty well on both systems. For 2007 that was a big thing for us PS3 owners if I remember correctly.

[Ju]

Sure thing an new _improved_ engine based on what they had in the first place.

Boy, if they had so much money at their disposal, why not really start optimizing it for each platform. Ran out of ideas, huh ?

At least "too expensive to do it" doesn't count here. More like "never change a winning team", which I can understand. But still, come on, spoiled millionaires. Take a risk, god damned.

[Nambassa]

they were offered a huge budget and they declined?? WHY? with the extra money they could have got dedicated servers, better graphics and overall a better experience. This just shows how full of themselves they are.
"No, we don't need that."
YES YOU DO! fix what needs to be fixed and stop pretending you don't need to!

[Redempteur]

i don't understand .. with more money you can try new things , expand your team in order to reach higher grounds ...

Do a better game overall ...

A team with money is better than a team without money to finish ...( there are some exception to this rule ).

Sorry but uncharted did everything Twice as much than the first in 2 years time .. By expanding their team ...

You know your title is going to sell ... then don't get lazy ..

[4point7BillionLoss]

they'd give sony some of thier spare budget ... please

[Gabe EatsWell]

Your username FAILS!

[ZBlacktt]

54% fail box needs it more. It will continue to break. What garbage huh? One who disagreed with a fact, you clearly don't want to see the facts, lol..loser. Going to go play some UC2 again. You keep dreaming.

[randomwiz]

what an ignorant fanboy.

ok fine, you hate the console because you're jealous, but to hate a whole company is purely retarded.

[4point7BillionLoss]

4.7 billion loss > (54% + RROD)

[4point7BillionLoss]

54% not a fact - it't the result of an internet poll open to any users ... we've seen all over what happens when users abuse polls. Now everyone states 54% failure rate as if it was officially published by microsoft.

Here's one fact - SONY MADE a 4.7 BILLION DOLLAR LOSS, this year.

...which is exactly 4.7 times worse than the 1 billion dollars microsoft put aside to cover RROD

[Digital-_-Smoke]

Lol if there was a other shooter coming out this year I would have consider buying, but there is not.... SONY needs to make the freaking ULTIMATE shooter online with insane graphics/gameplay/feeling that leaves me wanting for more like an addict for cocaïne, sure they have MAG.
beta tester here and im afraid its going to flop... flop hard.

[HDgamer]

It's in beta, not full version lol. Killzone 2 was in beta, it's much better than the beta now.

[Kleptic]

uh I didn't play he MAG beta...but killzone 2's beta was absolutely awesome...I wouldn't say the final game was so much better, the beta itself was great too...

but yeah, I hear a lot of bad stuff about MAG...similar to Socom Confrontation before release...I wouldn't say it sounds like a flop, but definitely not going to be something that takes the shooter genre by storm...

[Ju]

"similar to Socom Confrontation" where did you get that from ? Just made that up or what ?

[Digital-_-Smoke]

Dude get a life

[shysun]

MW2 is a better game than 99.9% of shooters on consoles. We don't need a new engine now.

[Elvfam511]

wow you're really a cod whore aren't you

[shysun]

Whats better?

[shysun]

I see disagrees but not one of you are confident to debate the better FPS games on console this gen. I said 99.9% because I can think of only one, and it damn show ant Halo3!

[Caffo01]

so just because it's better than 99,9% of the fps this gen you don't want it to have a new engine?it could be much better..activision and IW will continue to disappoint us as long as ppl like you buy a game with little improvements and price hike.MW2 is simply a rip-off..

[shysun]

What price hike? It's the same price as all other games out there.(i dont care about EU) There are more than just a little improvements when it comes to game play.

I don't play graphics so not every game has to be a 10 in the visuals department. Graphic whores like you disgust me.

[Caffo01]

it doesn't need to be a 10 in graphics...but i can't understand why you don't want a better game!!they were offered a higher budget..why don't accept it and deliver an incredible game?they just didn't want to work on another engine because MW2 will sell anyway!!IW were to lazy to do that!!they could have delivered much more than MW2 as it is now!
MW2 will be a good game but probably not as much as ppl expect!

[wildcat]

"Much like we don’t let ourselves get distracted by hype, if you have excess you feel like you should use excess,” he said.

“So we said ‘let us design a game the way we’d always design a game. And let us focus on that.’ So we didn’t let the budget affect our mentality. We would only put stuff in the game that is right for the game, and not because we can.”
----------------------------- ----------------
So I understand why they refused it, but it's still kind of ridiculous to turn it down. It would make much more sense to accept that budget and only use it according to what would make sense in the game. I mean did the contract state they had to use all of it?

[The_Devil_Hunter]

D@mn Im starting to dislike these guys now...thinking theyre to good. You know whos good...Naughty Dog. Now thats a developer.

[Digital-_-Smoke]

You assume I was talking about the graphical department right ?
No I wasn't in fact the game looks mindboggeling considering the engine handles 256 players realtime, 30 fps locked no frame dips I was talking about the gameplay it doesn't feel right, objectives are lame NOBODY works as a team it's really a mess, I hope it turns out good I really want them to push MAG to december 2010

[dragonyght]

this sound more like damage control

[DJ]

To modern warfare 1, and another 6 hour campaign? That's cool.

[wildcat]

They updated their engine with texture streaming, if I'm not mistaken, to allow for larger environments while also increasing the detail of the characters and immediate vicinity. They also improved on destructile environments.

But while I personally do see an improvement in graphics, I agree with many that it's not on the level of Naughty God from Uncharted 1 to 2. But then again, what is?

[Noctis Aftermath]

It is stupid to claim that people want uncharted level graphics for Modern warfare 2, people simply want more for there money, and a huge game like this should use all resources at hand to earn that cash, making the game 720p, significant visuals upgrade from the first MW, better sound, long single player campaign.

The multiplayer is already good, they added in more stuff like you'd expect but using (i think) a 4 year old engine? that just shows how much dough they want to keep in there own pocket.

[cyclindk]

Uses for insanely hugenormous budget:

- dedicated servers
- character customization
- more maps (map CUSTOMIZATION!!!)
- "make believe" weapons for extras
- graphics, but oh well we'll sell our CoD 4 1.5 to all those saps
- other gameplay mechanics, i.e. descending/ascending ropes, interrogation perk that requires two allied players, one to capture an enemy in a choke hold from behind and the other to "interrogate" for enemy positions

[Elvfam511]

"- character customization"

"- other gameplay mechanics, i.e. descending/ascending ropes, interrogation perk that requires two allied players, one to capture an enemy in a choke hold from behind and the other to "interrogate" for enemy positions"

[Applegate]

they should have used that money for better graphics.

[koehler83]

So when IW lowered the budget, Activision raised the price?

Right

[zerocrossing]

theres way to many stupid consumers who will by them anyway YOU PEOPLE are wats wrong with the industry you you mite mone about wat the games are laking but you all buy them anyway, reinforcing the developers by telling them that theyre games are great no matter what , ok lets use this as an example i'll keep it simple, if average game = 100,000,000 sales and a great game also = 100,000,000 sales then why not just make an average game? do you get it now? this isnt always the case its mostly with sequels halo 2/3 are perfect examples that hype sells better than the actual quality of the game this is a bitter sweet time for the gaming industry and its us consumers who will lose in the end.

[Barragan]

whats so the same about this game and whats so 1.5 about this game? also whats so the same about the graphics, who has this game and who has played it on their own tv, someone please show me the game on their own tv and show me whats the same, and while doing it, show me whats different about uncharted 2 and killzone 2 and ratchet and clank future a crack in time, and whatever else is so great that you compare to modern warfare 2, killzone 2 looks way better than killzone 1 cause of 2 or 3 years of development and it was exclusive and had a huge development team and a huge budget, and its the first game that guerilla games made on ps3 and they had a target render to work towards, the game wouldve looked like trash if it was multiplat, uncharted 2 was a second game and yes it did look dramatically better, but enough to say that modern warfare 2 looks so the same to modern warfare 1? call of duty has been on next gen platforms since 2005 there have been 5 call of duty games on next gen platforms and all of them multiplatform, this is a huge leap in graphics quality considering its gone up any on a multiplatform engine, your shooting blanks if your trying to diss the game comparing it against uncharted 2 or killzone 2, exclusive vs multiplatform is a failed argument indeed, and yet the game has already outsold everygame ps3 has, and im a ps3 fan, its outsold every 360 game, dont say that its cause its multiplat, cause if you look at mw2 sales on each individual platform it will probably still have more sales than the best games on either machine, and sales may or may not mean better game, but the playtime on mw2 will beat out any ps3 or 360 game

haters often make themselves look stupid

[rob6021]

Are they that greedy that they'd rather put less money into the game and more money into their pockets? Pretend like they're the best devs that they don't need money, what kind of joke is that - there's many devs out there that would kill to have even a decent budget. I'd understand if the money was all going to marketing, which would be bs.

Think of how good the game could have looked and played had they outsourced the lighting and ai like killzone2 did, or used weta motion capture. They could have hired on an additional team to help on the game, maybe transfer mw1 maps into the new engine, there's so much they could of done. But no they don't need that, they'd rather have bragging rights over the rest of the Dev community.

[OpiZA]

So why charge more?

[Mr Face Creamer]

Stop with the sh1t Bowling, your spewing it here and there. Can you even listen to yourself? This news doesn't impress us, it disappoints and frustrates us!

That's like someone telling you he bought you a Civic when he could have bought a Mustang for the same price.

[ZBlacktt]

I see another MS company in the works, lol... buy up the market no matter how much it takes. They want total control over kids minds. Then they're jackass CEO Robert K opens his mouth and bad mouths all the consumers of IW's game.

[kevin360uk]

I certainly will NOT be buying MW2 on release as there is no justification in bumping up the RRP price of £54.99 (£44.99 at most stores) Maybe if a huge budget was used then i would have understood a little more, but i simply will not pay an extra £5.
You can say oh but the developers are really talented and its going to be HUGE, no doubt it will be, but most video games today, developers work a hell of a lot getting a quality title out yet their publishers dont stick extra money on the price.
Sorry Activision CEO, its just GREED GREED GREED. If you've any sense you should delay and wait for it to reduce in price.. if it does

[TheProfessional]

I agree with everyone that says that they should've taken the money if it would've resulted in a longer single-player campaign and a new or at least heavily updated engine. And how about getting rid of those Playstation 1 era canned death animations? Are you kidding IW?

And MW2 IS MW 1.5 I'm sorry but I refuse to pay $65 for a 6 hour, heavily scripted, extremely linear campaign. Add to that the fact that Modern Warfare is just a poor man's Rainbow Six Vegas whose core fanbase is composed of joke 12 year olds with voice mutators and the case for MW2 aint so strong. Then you have the price hike and the snubbing of PC gamers who are the sole reason Call of Duty is a franchise and IW is successful in the first place.

Somebody needs to tell this IW crew to get their egos in check and remember who gave them thier start. Just because a bunch of kids who don't know any better tell them that "COD4 is da best shoota EVAR!" Shouldn't be enough to make these guys think they're anything but decent FPS devs at best.

[kingme71]

Didn't Activision raise the price because of development costs? They probably wanted IW to take the higher budget so they could justify the cost increase and when it didn't happen, they played that card anyway.

Why would they need a bigger budget if using the same engine as before? Development costs should be lower this time around.

[MajestieBeast]

A developer that has been making same generic war shooters doesnt take money to actually make a better game so that the game doesnt look like a 1.5 version with added perks and more easy kills that i do not get maybe infinity ward should learn from ps3 developers.

[sak500]

Dont punish IW punish stupid activision for hiking up the price. The devs themselves dint take the extra money. The game is amazing and anyway who played cod4 for only single player. If you are one of those types w/o internet connection then u might as well download a copy and play it. For the people who played MW1 to death online, they will still get a kick out of this.

The only thing $issed me off was the stupid halfbaked Mappack for MW1 and no support later on after fixing teh host leaving ending game issue.

If a game gives you 100s of hours of excitement with slightly better visuals and improved gameplay, i'd take it over pretty graphics and broken control system and lack of online community ala kz2.

[cyberwaffles]

activision are bunch of wankers (never used that word, heh heh heh). i mean is there a reason for a price hike and a removal of dedicated servers if activision is willing to spend so much on the development of the game? activision is the biggest publisher yet they taunt themselves thinking they need more money or they'll cut support. a-holes.

[MajestieBeast]

Ye cause not having auto aim is broken controls i forgot that thank you for reminding me...

[akaFullMetal]

well that's dumb? Turn down money, what were they thinking?

[STONEY4]

"EARLY ON – WHEN WE DECIDED TO MAKE A SEQUEL – Activision estimated out a ridiculous budget."

"Community Manager Robert Bowling said that publisher Activision was only shown the game ONCE DEVELOPMENT WAS WELL UNDER WAY."

They bascially contradicted themselves.

[RedSky]

Honestly it probably makes sense if you think about it.

They only have so many staff. They want to release the game in XX period of time. They could hire more staff but they would have to be trained and they might not be up to scratch.

Now if they only have so many staff, and so much time, there's only so much money they can spend, beyond stuff they outsource. I'm guessing the other thing not mentioned is that less money meant less pressure and development intrusion from Activision.

You could say that they could have used that excess money to include dedicated servers and sure they could have, but I'm guessing from their point of view this is an 'improvement' or at least will allow them to extract additional profits, so that wouldn't have factored into it.