14 DAY TRIAL // The Call of Duty series has been traditionally known for its lavish production design and its very popular multiplayer modes, but the development team working on the new Ghosts installment says that emotional investment from gamers is one of their main aims.
Mark Rubin, the executive producer at Infinity Ward, tells GamesIndustry.biz that he was surprised about how many players were talking about the dog shown in the trailers for the game, which the team never meant to highlight.
He states, “They’re already emotionally invested. It’s amazing how many Twitter messages I get saying – in all caps – if you guys kill the dog, I will never play another… and I’m like, ooh, you’re emotionally attached.”
The main characters of Call of Duty: Ghosts will be two brothers and that allows Infinity Ward to introduce more emotions to the interactions between them without compromising the overall military theme.
The story of the shooter is created by Stephen Gaghan, a writer with a Hollywood pedigree.
Rubin adds, “he really loves the challenge of it and he’s been really engaged with everything. There’s a disconnect between Hollywood and the game industry. They have two different languages. And they haven’t in the past talked very well. And I think that’s changing.”
Infinity Ward and publisher Activision have not yet offered full details on the setting of Ghosts, which is not connected in any way to Modern Warfare and to Black Ops.
America has been attacked in devastating manner by an unknown force and the survivors are working together in Ghost teams to take out the threat.
A full reveal for the multiplayer, which might include a cooperative mode called Squads, will be delivered on August 14.
Call of Duty: Ghosts will be launched on November 5 on the PC, the PlayStation 3, the Wii U and the Xbox 360.