Call of Duty action-adventure would have been 'world-class,' died in prototype

When Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey left Dead Space developer Visceral Games at EA, it was rumored that they'd take the Call of Duty experience into the third-person perspective. Then some ... things, happened. Sledgehammer Games went radio-silent and a year later, it was revealed that Schofield and friends were working with Infinity Ward to complete Modern Warfare 3.

But what about our dreams of a third-person Call of Duty? What about them? "We came on board to make a third person action adventure game, in the Call of Duty franchise," Schofield said in a video feature on Gamespot, "and we were working on it about six months." Condrey was matter of fact about the reasoning behind Sledgehammer's action-adventure title. "There are a lot of fans out there who enjoy games like Uncharted, so you can imagine that genre meeting a world-class franchise."

Condrey decided to rub it in a little more. "We had a prototype together that was pretty compelling, and it looked really good." But the chance to help make Activision's big gun shoot straight has probably killed its would-be offshoot. "The opportunity to work on the biggest thing in the industry with ... Infinity Ward, that's demonstrated that they know how to do exceptional software, was just an opportunity we couldn't (pass up)."