Cancled Call of Duty: Devil's Brigade Detailed

[Mavrick]

Former Activision staff release movie and screens from forgotten spin-off

[G4MERS] Call of Duty: Devil's Brigade - Canned Game - YouTube

A secret third-person Call of Duty spin-off game titled 'Call of Duty: Devil's Brigade' was cancelled just five months before the release of Infinity Ward's first Modern Warfare.

That's according to The Verge, which has provided a number of details on the spin-off, as well as a blurry movie and some screens.

Set in Italy during World War II, Devil's Brigade was to feature exploration, squad-based gameplay, and a "grim" story that followed a team of "skilfully trained killing machines".

A secret team began development with the codename "CODAA" or "Call of Duty Action Adventure". The team's primary focus was to create a vertical slice, a "12- to 15- minute segment of the campaign." Internal Activision studio Z-Axis was handed development duties, with a team that included Jason VandenBerghe, Scott Bandy and Trevor Jalowitz, all former EA employees initially hired to work on X-Men: The Official Game, which had run into trouble.

"[The vertical slice] didn't have a whole lot of [cinematic moments]," said James Schomer, designer on Devil's Brigade. "But I think a lot of that was planned. We were aware of the cinematic nature that Call of Duty was trending towards. But it was not part of the original demo. It was a 'this is what we're shooting for' sort of thing."

According to VandenBerghe, the title's viability was assessed using the 'stage gate process', where progress is looked at in a series of meetings along the way, but the progress of the project was significantly impacted by the release of Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare, which changed the way Activision looked at the Call of Duty. CoD: Devil's Brigade was reportedly canned nine months into development.

"We were ready for our final green light just as the merger with Vivendi/Blizzard was announced," explained Kyle Brink, lead designer of Devil's Brigade. "As is normal in a merger, you do everything you can to clean up your balance sheet. A studio that isn't in full production on a title with major revenue attached to it, which is about to ask for tens of millions in development dollars, is a great candidate for closure at that point. Was this also a way to keep IW happy after they had just produced Modern Warfare and made a hojillion dollars? Perhaps, but nobody ever put it to us that way."

"If the IW guys say they want to control the Call of Duty IP, they don't even have to say our name. We just got sideswiped. And that happens. I don't begrudge them for that," added VandenBerghe.

Scott Bandy and Trevor Jalowitz are still working at Activision, while James Schomer is now at LightBox Interactive, developing Starhawk for Sony. VandenBerghe is serving as creative director on Ubisoft's Far Cry 3.

Activision is believed to have taken a second crack at a third-person Call of Duty, but Sledgehammer Games general manager Glen Schofield said in October: "We'll probably cancel it". Sledgehammer co-developed Modern Warfare 3 with Infinity Ward.