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Zombies CoD
Image via activision
Category:
CoD

Treyarch stopped development of live-service CoD Zombies game in 2012, says former dev

Raven Software was apparently well ahead of the curve.
Image of Ryan Lemay
Ryan Lemay
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Published: Jan 12, 2024 05:11 pm

Zombies fans almost got a stand-alone live-service game in 2021, but Treyarch reportedly nipped the project in the bud.

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Raven Software is mostly known by Call of Duty fans for its work on Warzone. The studio spearheads updates for the battle royale and communicates with fans through patch notes, official statements on social media, and blog posts.

MW3 zombies chasing after players
Modern Warfare 3 Zombies threw the traditional formula on its head. Image via Activision

However, Raven almost went down a different path and created a zombie game long before Warzone surfaced—one that would’ve made Zombies a long-running and updated game long before the MW3 version.

Former Raven Software dev opens up about CoD zombies project

CharlieIntel didn’t reveal the source, but reported a former Raven Software dev claimed on LinkedIn that the studio was working on a CoD Zombies live service game until Treyarch axed the project. The former dev listed a former job title of lead designer on an unreleased Call of Duty: Zombies live-service game during an eight-month span between 2011 and 2012.

“Canceled when the Activision studio that ‘owned’ that part of the Call of Duty IP wanted it back,” the former dev put in the job description on LinkedIn.

Raven Software would have been well ahead of the competition by creating a live-service title before the trend took over gaming.

Video game fans are conflicted about live-service games, as they are updated with new content, features, and events to keep the player base invested over a long period of time. Still, some community members argue that these types of games create an excuse for devs to drip-feed content instead of releasing it all at once, and the genre is often packed with microtransactions.

It would have been interesting to see what Raven Software had up its sleeves for a Zombies live service game, but the project will instead go down in history as one of the biggest what-ifs in CoD history.

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Author
Image of Ryan Lemay
Ryan Lemay
Staff Writer
Ryan graduated from Ithaca College in 2021 with a sports media degree and a journalism minor. He gained experience as a writer with the Morning Times newspaper and then Dexerto as a games writer. He mainly writes about first-person shooters, including Call of Duty and Battlefield, but he is also a big FIFA fan. You can contact him at ryanlemay@dotesports.com.