It seems that the spirit of democracy is alive and well in the games industry, as news emerged today that Sledgehammer Games’ decision to take Call of Duty back to its World War II roots was decided by a studio-wide vote.
If you’re out of the loop, here’s everything we currently know about COD: WW2.
During this year’s GamesBeat Summit in California, co-founder Michael Condry revealed that they have “adopted a process since the beginning where we actually will talk to the studio.” He goes on to add that “every game we do with Activision is a team vote.” In fact, he revealed that the very decision to work on Call of Duty was decided by a studio vote. Prior to Advanced Warfare, the call was made to scrap another project in favour of the Call of Duty series when Activision approached them with a contract. Taking the series back to World War II has been met with near-universal praise. However it would seem that Sledgehammer Games were somewhat divided on the matter and the initial vote did not result in a large margin for either side.
The new title in the long standing series is due in early November and will bring with it several new features, including the scrapping of regenerating health in favour of allied healers. This will also be the case for replenishing ammo, removing the reliance on looting corpses for weapons and items. This higher focus on strategy and teamwork will be a welcome change for competitive gamers, as well as esports fans.
Call of Duty: WWII is due to land on November 3 and can be pre-ordered on Steam for $59.99/£44.99.