The curious case of the reflex
While everybody's got their panties in a twist over Modern Warfare 2 coming out next week, another story has been going on about this year's Wii Call of Duty offering. It's not Modern Warfare 2. No, it's actually a port of the original Modern Warfare released two years ago for HD consoles, and retitled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex Edition. In addition, Infinity Ward isn't doing development work on this port. Instead, Treyarch, the "other" Call of Duty developers, are handling all work bringing the title over to the Wii.
Now let's consider the bizarre set of circumstances surrounding this game. As of today, Activision has not released a single offical screenshot or video of the game. Zero. Nothing. Doesn't it seem odd that a port of 2007's "Game of the Year" has not a single official press asset or advertisement to its name? Back in August, a few lightly poop-seasoned screenshots were posted up on IGN, but these screens were shown to be from a pre-alpha build of the game and were never meant to be revealed to the public.
Then, a few weeks ago, a NeoGAF member by the name of "fyzxwhyz" began talking about the game, claiming to be a Treyarch developer. As it turns out, Treyarch was ordered to do a straight port of the game. No new textures. No new game modes. Just fitting Wii controls over a two-year old title. In fact, this port is apparently so true to its predecessors that Treyarch's logo isn't even displayed in the opening credits roll for Reflex. According to fyzxwhyz, the only place Treyarch staff is even mentioned is in the middle of the ending credits.
In summary, it would seem that Activision/Infinity Ward is trying to cover up all evidence that the game even exists, and for the few people who do end up finding out about Reflex, that any involvement by Treyarch be quietly swept under the rug. Why? It's not like Reflex edition is going to cannibalize any sales from Modern Warfare 2. Some people have begun to point the finger at hubris on the part of Infinity Ward versus the desires of their parent company, Activision.
Infinity Ward staff have gone on record saying they refuse to develop for the Wii, so it was unlikely they would have created a port of Modern Warfare 1/2 for the Nintendo Wii. The problem is, last year's Call of Duty title, World at War, sold rather well on the Wii. Surprisingly well. Now Activision, seeing the opportunity to expand its Modern Warfare 2 profits, asks IW to make a Wii version of MW2. But they won't have any of that. So instead Treyarch gets the order to make a port.
This is where the conspiracy theory comes into play. IW apparently wanted the Call of Duty spotlight to itself. But when Treyarch, a "B-rate" development team, received high praise for their work on the XBOX port of CoD2, IW got nervous. This could be how the pathetic state of Reflex came to be. Not only does IW actively hate on the Wii, but the thought of Treyarch taking yet another one of their treasured IPs and improving on would be a nightmare scenario for Infinity Ward.
Thus, the private spat between Infinity Ward and the world has resulted in no media being created for Modern Warfare: Reflex Edition. The only assets available today are flimsy YouTube videos of early pirated copies of the game. And guess what, it's apparently pretty good! Treyarch has done extensive work on letting the player customize Wiimote pointer control, implemented leaning, did a good job downsizing the HD graphics down to a level the Wii can handle, and created a "hotfix" system to patch any bugs that might be discovered on online multiplayer.
While the previous two paragraphs are full of conjecture, the fact still stands that Activision has done nothing to adversit the Wii version of Modern Warfare, despite it being a very solid port. Why am I even posting this? Because the circumstances surrounding the game truly are something to think about, plus I've kind of been hating on MW2 more and more as time goes on.
Now let's consider the bizarre set of circumstances surrounding this game. As of today, Activision has not released a single offical screenshot or video of the game. Zero. Nothing. Doesn't it seem odd that a port of 2007's "Game of the Year" has not a single official press asset or advertisement to its name? Back in August, a few lightly poop-seasoned screenshots were posted up on IGN, but these screens were shown to be from a pre-alpha build of the game and were never meant to be revealed to the public.
Then, a few weeks ago, a NeoGAF member by the name of "fyzxwhyz" began talking about the game, claiming to be a Treyarch developer. As it turns out, Treyarch was ordered to do a straight port of the game. No new textures. No new game modes. Just fitting Wii controls over a two-year old title. In fact, this port is apparently so true to its predecessors that Treyarch's logo isn't even displayed in the opening credits roll for Reflex. According to fyzxwhyz, the only place Treyarch staff is even mentioned is in the middle of the ending credits.
In summary, it would seem that Activision/Infinity Ward is trying to cover up all evidence that the game even exists, and for the few people who do end up finding out about Reflex, that any involvement by Treyarch be quietly swept under the rug. Why? It's not like Reflex edition is going to cannibalize any sales from Modern Warfare 2. Some people have begun to point the finger at hubris on the part of Infinity Ward versus the desires of their parent company, Activision.
Infinity Ward staff have gone on record saying they refuse to develop for the Wii, so it was unlikely they would have created a port of Modern Warfare 1/2 for the Nintendo Wii. The problem is, last year's Call of Duty title, World at War, sold rather well on the Wii. Surprisingly well. Now Activision, seeing the opportunity to expand its Modern Warfare 2 profits, asks IW to make a Wii version of MW2. But they won't have any of that. So instead Treyarch gets the order to make a port.
This is where the conspiracy theory comes into play. IW apparently wanted the Call of Duty spotlight to itself. But when Treyarch, a "B-rate" development team, received high praise for their work on the XBOX port of CoD2, IW got nervous. This could be how the pathetic state of Reflex came to be. Not only does IW actively hate on the Wii, but the thought of Treyarch taking yet another one of their treasured IPs and improving on would be a nightmare scenario for Infinity Ward.
Thus, the private spat between Infinity Ward and the world has resulted in no media being created for Modern Warfare: Reflex Edition. The only assets available today are flimsy YouTube videos of early pirated copies of the game. And guess what, it's apparently pretty good! Treyarch has done extensive work on letting the player customize Wiimote pointer control, implemented leaning, did a good job downsizing the HD graphics down to a level the Wii can handle, and created a "hotfix" system to patch any bugs that might be discovered on online multiplayer.
While the previous two paragraphs are full of conjecture, the fact still stands that Activision has done nothing to adversit the Wii version of Modern Warfare, despite it being a very solid port. Why am I even posting this? Because the circumstances surrounding the game truly are something to think about, plus I've kind of been hating on MW2 more and more as time goes on.