This was ‘Call of Duty: Future Warfare’, a canceled CoD game by the developers of Tony Hawk

Call of Duty: Future Warfare was a canceled game developed by Neversoft, a studio mainly known for creating the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series and developing several Guitar Hero titles starting with the third title. Recently, a playable prototype of the game was leaked, revealing hints of many ideas such as combat in zero gravity in space, which would be recycled afterward in Call of Duty: Ghosts, the 2013 delivery.

Everything we know about the canceled Call of Duty: Future Warfare, also known as NX1

In January 2024, several videos corresponding to a Call of Duty: Future Warfare development build (called NX1 within the studio) were released. This prototype of the game dated back to 2011, showing off gameplay of a mission called “Moonbase Assault”, with combat and gunfights in low-gravity environments.

According to Brian Bright, a former Neversoft employee, Activision asked the studio to develop a new installment of the Call of Duty saga after the general disbandment that occurred in Infinity Ward in 2010. The mission shown in the video is set on a lunar base, and according to this developer, It helped the team learn how to use the IW 4.0 engine.

At the beginning of September 2024 this same build of the game was leaked, and its public availability has led to much more content of this canceled Call of Duty being displayed. On YouTube it is possible to see lists of videos showing all the playable missions, and you can verify that this prototype was in a fairly advanced state of development., with levels for the single-player campaign complete with their scripts, music, dubbing, and character animations.

Also certain similarities can be perceived with respect to the original Modern Warfare trilogy by Infinity Ward, mainly regarding the player interface.

The game itself lacks cutscenes that contextualize how each mission ties into the next., so the plot it would have had is not entirely clear either. The exact reasons why this video game was canceled are unknown., but it is an interesting chapter both in the history of the Call of Duty saga and within the larger context of video game history.

Many of the features shown, such as space themes or combat in low-gravity environments were recycled in Call of Duty: Ghosts, the 2013 installment developed by Infinity Ward.

Of course, Its explosive multiplayer was also not missing from the package. Among the maps available, in addition to others created specifically for this new installment as peculiar as one called “Bin Laden Complex” there were also remastered versions of other classic levels much loved by fans from the saga such as Afghan and Terminal (Modern Warfare 2) or Crash (Modern Warfare).

Fan reactions to all of this previously unknown content have been mostly laments, considering that what was shown had a lot of potential and emphasizing that it is a shame that all this work did not see the light of day.

Why did Activision ask Neversoft to develop a new Call of Duty?

In February 2010, Jason West and Vince Zampella, key figures from Infinity Ward—the studio that created Call of Duty— Were fired from the studio for “insubordination”. The reality was that Activision wanted to get rid of them so as not to have to pay them large sums of money as a bonus taking into account a signed contract that also gave creative control of the saga to West and Zampella, but there was also a clause in which if both were fired, the intellectual property rights would belong to Activision.

Following the departure of Jason West and Vince Zampella from Infinity Ward, Many other studio workers followed in their bosses’ footsteps and ended up at Respawn Entertainment. Activision, in a state of panic, asked Neversoft to develop a new installment of the Call of Duty saga to reach the launch in 2013, and that’s how it was born Call of Duty: Future Warfare, trademarks registered by the company in May 2010.

Neversoft had already helped in the development of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011), so they had some experience in the game engine. Nevertheless, NX1/Future Warfare was canceled for reasons that have never been revealed, and instead, it was decided to develop Call of Duty: Ghosts, which hit stores in November 2013, where Neversoft collaborated to create Extinction mode in which we faced aliens.

In 2014, Neversoft was absorbed by Infinity Ward. the studio disappeared for all intents and purposes, and its workers have since dedicated themselves exclusively to the Call of Duty saga.

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