Call of Duty co-founder says Activision wanted game about Iran attacking Israel
Chance Glasco was responding to a White House propaganda video showing a montage of attacks on Iranian targets overlayed with Call of Duty animations
One of the co-founders of the popular video game series Call of Duty has said there was "pressure" from publisher Activision Blizzard on developers to producer a game about Iran attacking Israel.
In a series of posts on X, Chance Glasco said the pressure "appalled" developers who rejected the idea because it felt like "political propaganda being pushed by Activision".
Glasco's comments came after the official White House X account published a video montage of US military attacks on Iran with an overlay that replicated the Call of Duty animation aesthetic.
The montage features scenes of US aircraft readying for take off and explosions as Iranian weaponry is destroyed in US strikes.
Responding to the video, Glasco said: "This doesn't surprise me. I remember after Activision took over post-Respawn formation there was a very awkward pressure from Activision for us to make the next CoD about Iran attacking Israel.
"Luckily the vast majority of our devs were disgusted by the idea and it got shot down."
He did not mention a date but his fellow co-founders from the Infinity Ward studio were fired by Activision and founded Respawn Entertainment in 2010 after a dispute over creative control. Glasco remained at the company.
Call of Duty is one of the most lucrative video game franchises of all time, having brought its publishers more than $31bn in revenue between 2003, when it was first released, and 2022.
The franchise contains a broad range of games that cover the Second World War, the Cold War, futuristic conflicts and those that rely on alternative realities.
Fans have praised the series for its high octane missions that rely on spectacular graphics and cinematography but critics say it trivialises war.
At any given time, there are 45,000 people on average playing one of the games online.
While a conflict between Iran and Israel never formed the main storyline for any other game in the series, the 2022 title Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II featured the Quds Force, a specialist branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
That game features the assassination of General Ghorbrani, a character based on the Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani, whom the US killed in a missile strike in Baghdad in 2020.
Other games usually centre on conflicts against Russian ultranationalists or the so-called War on Terror.
Responding to one critic who questioned why Glasco objected to an Iran-Israel storyline but had no issue with other conflicts featured in the series, he said: "My point is that the government would happily use entertainment, including video games, as a way to sway public opinion on major issues.
"There have been decades of pressure for a war with Iran across multiple administrations. The scenarios you mentioned, not so much."
Middle East Eye contacted Activision for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication.
Gaming and the military
The American military, and others, have long used entertainment as a means to glamourise conflict and serve as a recruitment tool.
Tony Scott's 1986 blockbuster Top Gun was not just a breakout role for Tom Cruise, but also triggered a huge increase in recruitment for the military.
The film is credited with causing a 500 percent increase in recruitment for the US Navy.
With the development of the video games industry, gaming has increasingly taken on the role movies play in selling the military life to young people.
A 2024 Guardian article described how US sailors at a navy facility in Memphis played video games on duty in order to encourage recruitment among gamers.
The US army has even produced its own video game, the 2002 release America's Army, which aimed to give players a realistic insight into military life before joining.
But the relationship between the gaming industry and the military is not limited to recruitment and also includes the advancement of US military priorities.
In 2022, journalist and researcher Alan MacLeod, wrote about a "Military-Entertainment Complex" and the cosy relationship between the Pentagon and games developers.
Citing documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, he described a 2018 visit by Activision executives to a US Air Force base in Florida.
The executives were offered experiences that included "immersion focused on Special Tactics Airmen and air-to-ground capabilities".
An officer describes the trip as "a great opportunity to educate" and make the participants "more credible advocates for us".
The recruitment goes both ways, with US security officials taking up roles in the gaming industry.
In one example from 2021, Activision appointed Frances Townsend, a former Bush administration official, as its head of compliance.
Townsend, who served as US homeland security adviser, defended the use of torture techniques, such as waterboarding, in an interview with CNN in 2009.
She argued that in "limited circumstances these techniques can be effective in preventing terrorist attacks".
https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/call-duty-co-founder-says-publisher-activision-wanted-game-about-iran-attacking-israel
posted by Satish Sharma at
04:10
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