Former Call of Duty series lead Glen Schofield has expressed he’s “immensely worried” at the state of the modern FPS series under Microsoft, in a recent interview.
Speaking to VGC, discussed the future of Call of Duty, stating: “what’s happening to Gears of War, where’s Halo… you know what I mean? And you look at EA, you look at these big companies, and I’m like where’s the Strike games? Where’s this game? And there’s so many that just fall by the wayside.
“Unfortunately, once you’re assimilated by one of these companies, I think you take on some of their traits. The other thing is, I don’t know, but I would imagine that the Call of Duty bonus system is out, and now you have theirs, and people are going to go ‘that isn’t that’.”
Further elaborating on his thoughts, Schofield mused on what he believes has caused the decrease in quality in recent Call of Duty games, laying the blame also on the absence of key developers. This includes himself.
“I hate doing this, but since I left Sledgehammer, none of the games have been very good. I mean, [Modern Warfare (2023)] was a 50. They still sell well. You know, that happens. You move. I always wonder ‘why did you take that guy out, it’s not going to work later’, and very few times does that work.
“They just aren’t as good. They aren’t the same. Treyarch’s still really good but you know… I feel like I got lucky. I feel like I was at the heyday of EA during my time there. I mean, it was a who’s who working there. And then when I got to Activision, I made Modern Warfare 3 (2011).
“As a matter of fact, Modern Warfare 3 was the last Call of Duty to win Action Game of the Year, and my other two games were nominated for it. But now, you know, you don’t see them.”
In recent years, Schofield has himself had mixed results when attempting to create great games. After joining Krafton in 2019, he and the team at Striking Distance created The Callisto Protocol. This spiritual successor to Dead Space – another series he worked on – failed to meet sales targets. Schofield ultimately left Striking Distance voluntarily in late 2023.