The Medal of Honor killer: A Call of Duty story

November 2nd, 2013, 01:06 Posted By: wraggster

Over the decades, the global video games industry has seen some fierce rivalries. Sonic vs Mario. FIFA vs PES. Xbox vs PlayStation.
But the fiercest and bitterest of all conflicts has to be the one between EA and Activision.
The two super-powers of game publishing have been locked in battle for over 30 years. And the animosity between the two was laid bare in 2010 after a dispute between Activision and Call of Duty creators Infinity Ward saw many of the developer’s staff walk out, form their own studio, and then jump into bed with EA. Respawn – as the studio is aptly called – launches its first game Titanfall in March.
But as anyone familiar with industry history will tell you, this was not an isolated incident. The EA/Activision war goes back ten years. And it was actually Activision that fired the first shot.
“Back in 2003, EA had Medal of Honor as the runaway World War II shooter. It was fabulous. That was the product to beat,” says Scott Dodkins, who was Activision’s Euro VP at the launch of the first Call of Duty.
“I think the EA/Activision rivalry was even more intense then. We were really gunning for EA. We were desperate to narrow the gap and overtake it, which Activision eventually did. EA had games like FIFA, which we couldn’t compete with. But Medal of Honor was a genre we thought we could enter. So we were looking for a product that could emulate and beat it, and we came up with Call of Duty.”

"I think the EA/Activision rivarly was even more intense in 2003.
We were really gunning for EA."

- Scott Dodkins, ex-Activision VP

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