Activision discusses Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 leak

Activision has responded to the massive Modern Warfare 3 leak that led to a blowout of details being made public, including the entire single-player campaign, details of multiplayer maps, and the returning Spec Ops mode.

“While it’s definitely not cool to steal other people’s intellectual property, and while it’s definitely not cool to leak stuff that’s not yours, there are ways that you can respond that actually turn the lemons into lemonade,” said Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg in an interview with Joystiq.

“That’s what we tried to do,” said Hirshberg.

How did Activision turn their frowns upside down, then? “We kind of took that exact conversation we were having in our conference room outside and had it publicly in social media.”

“We reached out to our fans and we said, ‘Look, we didn’t schedule this. This wasn’t something we had planned. But everyone seems excited, so we’re just going to roll with it. So here they are, a couple of assets that weren’t scheduled to be out for another couple of weeks, we’re going to release ’em to you today.'”

The assets in question were four teaser trailers, released a day after the leak, when Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was made official

Activision wanted to “see through the lens of our fans,” who wanted to know information about the game after seeing it leaked. “They didn’t do anything wrong,” Hirshberg stated.

Hirshberg also asserted how “not everything that was leaked is accurate.”

Modern Warfare 3 is being developed by Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, and Raven Software. No official date has been given, but many retailers are listing the game for release on November 8.