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A new report from Bloomberg has surfaced, stating that Activision and Sledgehammer Games’ highly anticipated MW3 entry was initially supposed to be an expansion for 2022’s MW2. It was only during the 16 months of the game’s development that it morphed into the full sequel that fans have come to know today.
According to Jason Schreier’s article, released mere hours ahead of the Modern Warfare 3 release date, a representative for Activision denied the allegations that MW3 was a mere expansion, saying it was conceptualized as a “premium game” since the beginning. However, multiple CoD developers went on to refute this statement, noting that it “conflicts with what they were told at the time,” with some noting that plans were left ambiguous at first. In contrast, others were told it was an expansion outright.
Of course, the handy MW3 carry forward feature that allows you to transfer content from MW2 also made it seem like the latest CoD installment was conceived as an expansion since this mechanic was never introduced in past games. In addition, its widely panned campaign, which continues the MW2 story, albeit with a few new characters, only fueled the fan base’s expansion speculations further as soon as it was released to the public during the early access period.
Aside from the revelation of MW3’s supposed original status as a DLC, Schreier went on to describe the crunch that the game’s developers had to endure after Activision higher-ups decided to change strategy months into production. At first, the game’s plot was only supposed to be a smaller-scale storyline that could be finished in a shorter timeline. Unfortunately, company executives decided to pivot to the sequel campaign that now features Makarov, forcing the development team to fit it into a much shorter timeline.
All that said, it’s still unclear what caused Activision to suddenly change its mind, as a DLC to MW2 would still undoubtedly have been priced similarly to a full-blown sequel. It also remains to be seen whether this decision will pay off as the game has yet to be released, but fans should be able to find out soon as the launch is only a handful of hours away.
