In a recent interview with CVG, Treyarch communications manager John Rafacz has stated that neither Infinity Ward or Treyarch have played a significant role in their flagship’s PlayStation Vita debut, Black Ops: Declassified.
Despite co-developing one of the industry’s biggest gaming franchises, duties have been passed down to the Sony-owned Nihilistic Software of Resistance: Burning Skies infamy. With that said, Activision will still be publishing the game, the Call of Duty team also stepping in to make sure the game sticks to the series’ canon.
Connoting some form of arrangement between the two companies, Rafacz explained that the Call of Duty brand had not been licensed to Sony. Instead, Sony and Activision have formed a “partnership” with the platform holder agreeing to market a Vita hardware bundle that will include Declassified.
It sounds like a beneficial deal for both parties though there are no doubt a myriad of hidden details we aren’t likely to uncover any time soon. Still, it seems odd that Activision hasn’t allocated any support from its Call of Duty studios. We know for a fact that Declassified won’t upstage the franchises’ next console instalment but with early reports claiming that the game isn’t looking too promising, could the publisher be trying to step out of the blast radius when it launches this November?
Source: CVG
bmg_123
Why oh why do Sony support incompetent studios like Nihilistic, yet crush successful ones like Liverpool? I’m really not surprised that Treyarch want to stay away from this game…
Jim Hargreaves
Because: Call of Duty.
bmg_123
Yeah, well, if Sony are really hoping for an influx in Vita purchases because of the brand name alone they’ll be sorely disappointed. I bet even Liverpool would be able to do a better job on this game than Nihilistic, or perhaps more obviously Zipper who did a great job on Unit 13. Makes me angry that Sony seem to be forgetting their most famous studios in light of a few losses in sales…
Taylor Made
Get over Liverpool studio being shut lol wipeout is just as bad as COD same crap every so often
bmg_123
Read my comment again; “successful ones like Liverpool?”, I never said anything about liking their games, but they were successful and I can guarantee their games sold more than anything Nihilistic have done.
Taylor Made
Zombie apacolypse was a good game. In all fairness same 20 people were buying wipeout that ain’t barely successful
KeRaSh
This is not twitter. You are not restricted to 140 characters per post. Please make an effort to use proper punctuation and don’t leave out parts of sentences.
gazzagb
So even Treyarch knows it’s going to be the same as Resistance just with COD written on the box. Oh dear…
Awayze
COD Blops D on VIta is going to suck more than Blops did on PS3, even if that’s possible.
BAZ1307
There’s absolutely nothing anybody could do to make me want this game now. Looks like it’s going to be the worst Vita title released yet. Like others have mentioned, I’m extremely annoyed that Sony decided to keep Nihilistic open, yet close down Sony Liverpool Studios. I will never live that down now. :(
I hope this title sells badly so either, the Call of Duty franchise doesn’t continue on Vita, or, Treyarch actually go to work on their own Vita version of Call of Duty… and if it’s half decent, I may buy it. :P
Carl
This selling badly would not make Treyarch work on their own Vita game, lol.
If you want that, you need this game to do well. If it sells well, Activision will see there’s a market for CoD on Vita and possibly dedicate more resources toward it.
Tuffcub
Its got COD on the box. It will sell no matter what.
Carl
Yeah, pretty much.
gazzagb
Doubt it, even the fanboys on the official forums haven’t been getting that excited over it, mainly because they know it’s not a ‘proper’ COD developer and many don’t like Vita.
I’m sure it will sell, but not as much as people are expecting.
Carl
Fanboys on official forums aren’t the people that would buy it. Average guy on the street who knows the Call of Duty name is.
xdarkmagician
It can’t sell more copies then there are vitas. The real question is, is it good enough to buy a vita to play it?
uncharted86
Killzone: Mercenary will shit all over this, but unfortunately it’s not hard to predict which one will sell best.
damoxuk
True that. Merc looks brilliant.
Carl
Nihilistic isn’t Sony owned…
sionllj
I recently played Resistance Burning Skies and for the most of the game I thought that the reviews were a bit harsh… then I reached the boss. It completely ruined the game!
My point being; Nihilistic is a competent studio but makes some strange design decisions which drag the game down.
GregHorrorShow
Agree with this. Resistance BS lacked polish but I enjoyed it and thought the online (when you got into a game) was fairly solid. Certainly enjoyable enough for me to fully rank up and stick around 6-8 hours into the online.
I’m thinking / hoping positive – Nihilistic now have the experience/feedback of having released an FPS on the Vita and their ability/skill will have increased since they made Resistance.
I reckon COD Vita will be an above average FPS – I’m not expecting it to set the world on fire. That’ll do for me.
I’m more excited by the Killzone Vita game to be honest.
The Lone Steven
Just how many developers do Acti plan on getting to work on the COD franchise at one point or another as it’s starting to get a bit silly. Also, Sony that’s probably not wise to get Nihilistic to COD as their last game wasn’t excalty the best game that they could have done.
Also, Sony and Acti are going to have one hell of a hard time trying to sell this as chances are most of the fans won’t be interested in this due to BLOP2 being out in a few months or just won’t touch a Vita.
colmshan1990
To the comments asking why Sony shut Liverpool and Zipper and not Nihilistic:
Probably because Sony owned Liverpool and Zipper, and not Nihilistic. Nihilistic are independent, and can’t be shut down by Sony.
Wish the same were true of Studio Liverpool and Zipper now though… :(