14 DAY TRIAL // Call of Duty: Black Ops, the biggest entertainment release of last year in terms of sales and profit, was largely inspired by its predecessor, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, according to a designer from Treyarch.
Call of Duty: Black Ops racked up a huge amount of money since its launch back in November, and has just seen the first piece of downloadable content, the First Strike Map Pack, be released as a timed exclusive for the Xbox 360 console.
The most recent Call of Duty title, developed by Treyarch, owes a lot to the previous game in the series, Modern Warfare 2, which arrived from franchise creator Infinity Ward.
Speaking with MCV, Treyarch design director David Vonderhaar said that his team was motivated and inspired by the great title launched by Infinity Ward.
"Every developer dreams of making the No.1 selling title in the history of gaming," he said.
"You want to make the biggest, strongest, highest-rated, most critically acclaimed and best-selling video game on the planet. We looked at Modern Warfare 2 and said: 'What an amazing benchmark, let's go get it'. It drives a lot of what we do everyday. It is a huge inspiration to us, and for us to even be in that league, that's fantastic."
There were a lot of rumors in the past that the relationship between the two studios was extremely tense, but according to the Treyarch designer, it's a great partnership and his studio has no strict obligations from Activision to one-up the profit made by Infinity Ward.
"People don't come by our offices and say: 'Hey, this game sold this many map packs, you better do the same or all bets are off.' Those aren't conversations that happen," Vonderhaar said.
The designer revealed that he and his team only wanted to deliver great experiences for players, with the most recent example being the First Strike map pack.
"The only thing that is in my control is making First Strike something people want to buy. It's not practical for me is to go 'Oh God, this map pack sold ten bajillion, and I need to do the same.'"
"All I can do is make First Strike awesome. I just try to focus on that and remain distraction-free from any business or social pressure. Nothing else is in my control and I have to remain level-headed about that."
Expect more DLC to arrive for Black Ops in the following months, while Activision, the owner of the franchise, is preparing to reveal a brand new Call of Duty title that will appear at the end of the year, probably Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 3.