Crash Bandicoot developer Toys for Bob and Call of Duty studio Sledgehammer Games have reportedly lost around 40 per cent and 30 per cent of their staff, respectively.
Activision Reportedly Cancelled Standalone COD Zombies Game Ten Years Ago
16.01.2024 - 10:37 / thegamer.com / Phil Spencer
Call of Duty fans have been asking about a standalone Zombies game for years to no avail. However, according to one developer's LinkedIn profile, they nearly got their wish over a decade ago.
As reported by MP1ST, ex-Raven-Software lead designer Michael Gummelt lists working on an "Unreleased Call of Duty: Zombies live-service game" from 2011 to 2012, adding that it was "Cancelled when the Activision studio that 'owned' that part of the Call of Duty IP wanted it back."
While he doesn't name the studio, it's safe to assume that it was Treyarch. Zombies debuted in World at War as a secret mode, before becoming a fully-fledged staple of Treyarch's future games starting with the original Black Ops. It "owned" that part of the series and still develops it today.
The standalone game was also cancelled in 2012, the year that Black Ops 2 was released, which saw Treyarch expand Zombies even further.
There are no other details about the game, aside from the fact that it existed at one point. Over ten years later, Activision still hasn't made a standalone Zombies spin-off, instead implementing it into other Call of Duty's beyond Treyarch's, so the idea was evidently short-lived.
It's not the only detail on Gummelt's profile, however, as he also reveals that he was lead designer on an "Unreleased sequel to a classic Raven IP", but it was scrapped when Call of Duty Warzone launched and proved successful. Again, details are scarce, but we can hazard a guess at what this classic IP may have been.
The last Hexen/Heretic game launched in 1998, nearly 30 years ago.
Before it became one of the major Call of Duty studios, Raven was known for its cult series, Hexen/Heretic. They were medieval fantasy Doom-likes, i.e. boomer shooters with magic. Fans have been clamouring for a return to the series for decades, and Xbox head Phil Spencer sent the internet into a frenzy just by wearing a Hexen shirt. It's possible that this was the unreleased sequel mentioned on Gummelt's LinkedIn page, but we can only speculate.
Perhaps one day we'll see Hexen return and Activision try its hand at a standalone Zombies game again, but Michael Gummelt isn't at the studio anymore. Right now, he's an experience director at ZeniMax Online Studios, the team behind The Elder Scrolls Online. He left R aven Software back in 2021 after a 23-year career, with his last projects being Black Ops Cold War and Warzone.
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