Over the years we’ve slowly but surely been running out of locations for First Person Shooters – we’ve battled the axis in the trenches of WWII, fought in modern-day combat and future cities all across the globe. Could we finally be fighting the good fight in outer space? Probably not.
In an interview with GamesRadar, Call of Duty Black Ops III multiplayer director Dan Bunting all but confirmed this won’t be happening, at least for the foreseeable future. Bunting said that Activision is more committed to producing games grounded in believable settings, although the company does have a ‘never say never’ policy for the creative process.
“I don’t think we’re ever going to reach a point where we just completely ignore finding authenticity,” he explained; although more recent titles Advanced Warfare and Black Ops III flirt with future military tech, quick searches can tell you that certainly some of the ideas on show are being developed right now. Thus, Bunting says that it still “feels believable” because the technology is rooted in real-world ideas.
The problem with setting Call of Duty in space is simply that it require so many work-arounds in comparison to switching weapon models and fine tuning the gameplay. Back in November 2013 when former Infinity Ward producer Mike Rubin said a Call of Duty game in space “makes sense,” he also explained the many hurdles that would come along with it. “Grenades wouldn’t work exactly right,” he said. “Kill Streaks wouldn’t work at all–can’t have a helicopter in outer space. Or a dog for that matter.” With Killstreaks being right at the heart of the massive multiplayer scene Call of Duty maintains, tearing it apart just to fit the game in space seems dangerous.
Alongside these deliberations, Activision have apparently previously considered developing Call of Duty in space. A trademark was registered as far back as 2010 for ‘Call of Duty: Space Warfare,” but this was abandoned and presumably scrapped in August last year.
Bottom line, it seems the only Call of Duty in space we’ll have for now is the opening shootout in Call of Duty: Ghosts’ single player campaign.