Activision’s Sledgehammer studios have been putting up job listings on their site to get more development muscle behind what will be Call Of Duty 8. The advertisement reads: “The candidate will help Sledgehammer Games deliver a 95+ rated Call of Duty game ‘bug free’ meeting the high expectations of gamers today.”
Nice, so to me that looks like they’re acknowledging that there are issues with Black Ops, point blank. As for the mention of review scores, I suspect critics are going to be a lot harsher this time around, and that Activision had better let Sledgehammer (and maybe Raven/Infinity Ward? They all seem to be chipping in back and forth) finish the game before they actually demand your cash.
The Black Ops PS3 petition is still fresh in many gamer’s minds, with players complaining that the publisher was using them “like game testers”. Obviously it wouldn’t have lessened the pain when they remembered that they would be getting the first batch of DLC, First Strike, a month later than the Xbox boys/girls. There have many numerous patches and hotfixes implemented with varying levels of effectiveness.
CoD 8 is probably going to have to be absolutely perfect on all platforms if Activision wants the money making franchise to continue to harvest each year. Will it be perfect though? We’ll have to see.