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Bungie has obliterated speculation that it may be in line to make a Call of Duty game for new publishing partner Activision.
Yesterday Bungie and Activision shocked the gaming world when it announced a mammoth ten-year exclusive publishing deal for games relating to a new unannounced original IP.
Overnight quotes from community manager Brian Jarrard on website UGO.com suggested Bungie could be tapped to work on Activision titles.
“Who’s to know if there are other discussions where we have chances to work together in other areas,” Jarrard told the site.
With the future of Modern Warfare series in doubt following the sacking of Infinity Ward founders Vince Zampella and Jason West, Jarrard’s quote sparked speculation that Bungie may end up developing a Call of Duty game.
Indeed Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia told Industry Gamers yesterday that “if needed, Bungie would be a very good potential fit to replace Infinity Ward on development of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare franchise in the future.”
However, speaking to VideoGamer.com in a phone interview this evening, Jarrard put paid to any speculation linking Bungie to the Call of Duty franchise.
“Yeah. I can certainly see why people would speculate that,” he told VideoGamer.com.
“But it’s definitely not something we’re interested in at all, and there have been no discussions around that. This partnership and every discussion over the last nine months has been solely based on Bungie bringing its own original IP and its next universe to life.”
Jarrard also clarified his previous statement to UGO.
“It’s possible that I said, like I wouldn’t say that we would never have that discussion. But I should definitely clarify that a hundred per cent our focus going forward is on our own IP.
“We are definitely inspired and excited to work on our own original IP. Working on somebody else’s intellectual property does not excite us at all. Frankly in order to pull off what we have envisioned for the future and where we want to take our next universe, and just how ambitious it is and the scope and scale, it’s going to require our entire studio to pull this off and to execute it. I just don’t see a reality where we could even afford to fragment our team across multiple projects, let alone would we ever want to do that. We are laser focused; everyone’s aligned to a single goal. Honestly, that’s when Bungie’s at its best.”
We’ll have more from our interview with Brian Jarrard soon, so stay tuned.
