Games with a realistic war setting, such as the Medal of Honor series, C&C: Generals or Battlefield 1942, have been doing really well for EA. September 11 and the war in Iraq have changed the image of games with a military setting: just look the ad campaigns Ubisoft has been running for their Tom Clancy titles the last couple of months. Now Activision is announcing the obvious move:

"Publisher Activision has announced the launch of a key franchise this morning, namely Call of Duty, a new umbrella brand that "lets players experience the dramatic intensity of war through the eyes of common soldiers".

Starting with World War II, Call of Duty will try and map elements of the 20th century's most devastating conflicts from the perspective of various unsung heroes. The games will be released on both console and PC in line with Activision's multi-platform strategy. The first title in the series is being developed by Infinity Ward, a studio that includes 22 of the individuals who worked on EA's Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Theirs will be a World War II shooter, in which players fill the shoes of a US paratrooper, a British commando and a Russian infantryman in separate campaigns to help crush the Nazi war machine."

I don't consider myself a knee-jerk war-opponent... but I'm not amused by this development.

(From GamesIndustry.biz.)