• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Call of Duty Games will be made by outside contractors moving foward says leaker

Honestly Halo is really good. It was slow in development because they had engine issues. And they fully failed on creating a GAAS pipeline at launch. But that seems to have hobbled even the best devs, including Naughty Dog.

As for Call of Duty, I'll just wait and see. If it goes south we'll all see it.
You seem to be one of the few with this opinion in this thread. I am curious. COD is the huge IP that can't be beat because in part of Activision ability to release a new game each year. You admit that Halo was slow to be as good as it should be at launch. If we accept the idea that the same should happen for COD if the same methods are used, I suppose that Xbox plan would be to stop making a game each year, a little like Ubisoft did for Assasin's creed games. Do you consider Halo infinite good for a Halo game, or good even compared to their concurrents like COD, Fortnite etc? If the answer is the latter how do you see the Halo IP be used when they now have one that is stronger? Do you think that for example the next Halo wil risk a fate like what happened to Titanfall 2? Being released at a bad time?
 

Topher

Identifies as young
To all my anti-consolidation homies from the ABK acquisition thread.....

smug top gear GIF


(if true)
 
Last edited:

Stooky

Member
If this is how I think it is, what this really means is they will hire contract workers over Full Time Employees (FTE) when they need to ramp up production. The contract workers will still go to the office and be part of the "team" but will be replaced when their contracts are up. There will still be a set number of FTEs, mostly being their senior developers and such. I am not defending this, because I actually think this approach can add a lot of technical debt, but with the way the cycle of game development can go, it makes sense. You don't need a full sized team working all the time. By having a good portion of the team as contractors, it makes it easier to scale up and down your workforce.

Where I work at, we have a similar approach (one of the main things we build are large-scale, enterprise ecommerce solutions). We have a good combination of FTEs and contract workers. When a large project comes is, we will hire mostly contractors to help work on the project, with our senior FTE developers, architects, and project managers leading the project. When the project is up, if there is not another project in the waiting, the contractors are lowered in size.

I personally would never want to be a contractor again, but many people like it. They do get paid more, but they usually do not have full blown benefits. We could not afford to keep all of them as fulltime employees. This approach works for us due to how we are dependent on sales coming in for projects, but it can cause issues like I mentioned before with tech debt.

One thing that does not make sense for this though, is the cycle of COD games that there has been. It really seems like a developer could roll off of one COD game and continue work on another, minimizing the amount of downtime between development at a single studio. However, maybe due to the number of developers, it is still too many for that approach so some FTE developers need to be transitioned into contract roles? Or maybe MS' goal is to lower the overall number of COD games in the future?

Of course this is all speculation, and only MS truly knows the strategy behind this. At the end of the day is about capitalism and making money. It really sucks for those who lost their jobs.
it could work depending on production cycle. Usually in games you bring in contractors the last 2 years of production. Most things have been set up by your in house team, you are hiring contractors to finish and pump out work.
 
Last edited:

//DEVIL//

Member
Halo infinite is a better product than any of the last few CODs so not sure what the concern is
after how many years ? ( oh and its still not better than Halo. but at least Halo decent ) . it took it couple of years since release date just to get in a better decent position if not more than 2 years even.

COD is a yearly release. are we gonna wait 2 years to fix the one going to be released on 2024 ? lol

honestly I no longer know what the fuck MS is doing. and no comments to address the recent rumores or leaks either isnt helping. its like they told Phill to shut the fuck up and stop talking on twitter along with the rest of the gang.

lots of hidden things is surrounding the xbox ( and playstation to some extent ) these days.
 
Last edited:
On the other hand, the "Microsoft touch" also resurrected Age of Empires.
which is the only aoe rts game I haven't played. I play campaign and skirmish single player and they couldn't even put in a pause button, like all other age games and total war. Also looks bland compared to aoe2 and 3.

As for cod, Can't be worse then current mtx/shit/woke vanguard / mw3.
 
Last edited:

Hudo

Member
which is the only aoe rts game I haven't played. I play campaign and skirmish single player and they couldn't even put in a pause button, like all other age games and total war. Also looks bland compared to aoe2 and 3.

As for cod, Can't be worse then current mtx/shit/woke vanguard / mw3.
I mean Age as a franchise. It was dead for quite a long time (killed off by Don Mattrick). Then they resurrected it with Age 2 HD and employing the fans to elevate what was once a mod into a full thing. And then they put more money into it.

They also resurrected Flight Simulator as a franchise.
 

Embearded

Member
As i understand there is no confirmation about this yet, right?

This has been an argument from the anti acquisition group. I always believed they plan to integrate ABK fully into Microsoft and enforce their policies to them. It's only logical, as you cannot have different rules for different studios / people under the same organization.

I said it back in August:


And i still believe it.
ABK will be fully integrated into MS, even on cases where ABK was better than MS.
Managers will get high bonuses / goodbye checks and the story will end.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
I doubt this is true.
It might possibly be true, it might already have been true before the aquisition- but i guarantee the guy who 'leaked' it has absolutely no idea if it is true or not.
 
Last edited:

CamHostage

Member
Usually in games you bring in contractors the last 2 years of production. Most things have been set up by your in house team, you are hiring contractors to finish and pump out work.

You would think that, at some point, studios would just be "contractor studios" of trained staff available to just bounce around development offices as needed. (And some established studios actually do that, like Virtuos and Certain Affinity and places like that, albeit usually for an area of expertise or for an extended contract, not just "Here's some guys for your final lap.") Then again, those employees would be permanent at the "contractor studio", carrying with it all the office and healthcare costs of having the people in house.
 

Shut0wen

Banned
This has got to be fake, right?

Why buy them if you dont want them to continue the IP you paid billions for?
Im calling fake to but if it is genuine its impossible to make a fully fledge game with contractors, most contractors have max 150 people, even if you hired a bunch to make a game one would have to take the lead which is thus the developer, think this retard is talking about warzone because its literally impossible
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
You seem to be one of the few with this opinion in this thread. I am curious. COD is the huge IP that can't be beat because in part of Activision ability to release a new game each year. You admit that Halo was slow to be as good as it should be at launch. If we accept the idea that the same should happen for COD if the same methods are used, I suppose that Xbox plan would be to stop making a game each year, a little like Ubisoft did for Assasin's creed games. Do you consider Halo infinite good for a Halo game, or good even compared to their concurrents like COD, Fortnite etc? If the answer is the latter how do you see the Halo IP be used when they now have one that is stronger? Do you think that for example the next Halo wil risk a fate like what happened to Titanfall 2? Being released at a bad time?
I barely play first person shooters. It's really not my genre. But I thought the game controlled extremely well, had solid enemy AI, and the grappling hook was a great boost for traversal or grabbing items. The feel of the actual gameplay is among the best FPS games I've ever played, and this is why it got good reviews. I did want more biome variety though.

I don't accept anything about this leaker. I don't know if any of this is true, or if the contractor work is truly the cause of any demise of Halo. I just said as far as Call of Duty, I'm just going to wait and see since this sounds like BS frankly, or exaggerated BS.

As for MS strategy for Halo, I don't know what the plan is. Make games and put them out. Maybe they're shooting for early into next gen. I don't think MS sees it as a problem to have multiple shooters.
 

Stooky

Member
You would think that, at some point, studios would just be "contractor studios" of trained staff available to just bounce around development offices as needed. (And some established studios actually do that, like Virtuos and Certain Affinity and places like that, albeit usually for an area of expertise or for an extended contract, not just "Here's some guys for your final lap.") Then again, those employees would be permanent at the "contractor studio", carrying with it all the office and healthcare costs of having the people in house.
Yep. The corporate answer is to hire contractors because it looks good for numbers quarterly. In the end it cost more. The time spent on training then losing that talent and knowledge is a drain is just stupid. Contracting out QA is stupid, it doesn't get you a quality product. Some qa can be outsourced but In house QA working directly with devs is always better. If all this is true Microsoft is ushering in Bargain bin gaming for the masses.
 
Some of you really must think the G in NeoGAF stands for gullible. If you believe this, Twitter might be better suited for you.
 

Mooreberg

is sharpening a shovel and digging a ditch
This is slightly difficult to believe, if only because doing this with Halo, and now COD, would mean virtually none of the trove of FPS developers they have acquired would be safe from the practice. What would stop them from pulling the same move with Arkane, id Software, or Machine Games (after seeing how the Indy game performs). They would be diminishing the value of what they have invested heavily in, just to shave some cost off of the development budget? I understand what they did with Sledgehammer, they have been having the most difficulty of the COD developers in recent years. Not sure this would make sense with the other studios. Particularly given that the release schedule on this franchise does not afford them the room to correct mistakes along the way, like they could do with six years between mainline Halo releases.
 
I barely play first person shooters. It's really not my genre. But I thought the game controlled extremely well, had solid enemy AI, and the grappling hook was a great boost for traversal or grabbing items. The feel of the actual gameplay is among the best FPS games I've ever played, and this is why it got good reviews. I did want more biome variety though.

I don't accept anything about this leaker. I don't know if any of this is true, or if the contractor work is truly the cause of any demise of Halo. I just said as far as Call of Duty, I'm just going to wait and see since this sounds like BS frankly, or exaggerated BS.

As for MS strategy for Halo, I don't know what the plan is. Make games and put them out. Maybe they're shooting for early into next gen. I don't think MS sees it as a problem to have multiple shooters.
Thanks for the answer. For me the leak is one of those "it makes sense" that people say because if true it give them reputation but if wrong there is no loss. A little like the person that said that stupid statement about Jim rayan before 2023 Sony conference. But here more than one person said it and "it makes sense" than Microsoft who love temp workers to use them for Activision. I think that if the same happen to Bethesda we will be fixed.
 
Misleading headline. Isn't that how a lot of games are made now? I remember some story about TLoU2 having a dozen outsourced teams on it or something like that.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Thanks for the answer. For me the leak is one of those "it makes sense" that people say because if true it give them reputation but if wrong there is no loss. A little like the person that said that stupid statement about Jim rayan before 2023 Sony conference. But here more than one person said it and "it makes sense" than Microsoft who love temp workers to use them for Activision. I think that if the same happen to Bethesda we will be fixed.
I just know Halo supposedly switched to Unreal 5. I think that will most likely fix the main issue with their delays. Having a unique engine probably does pose extra challenge for temp workers, and most would probably be more familiar with unreal. I'm not losing any sleep over Call of Duty. They will figure it out I'm sure.
 
I just know Halo supposedly switched to Unreal 5. I think that will most likely fix the main issue with their delays. Having a unique engine probably does pose extra challenge for temp workers, and most would probably be more familiar with unreal. I'm not losing any sleep over Call of Duty. They will figure it out I'm sure.
I don't care that much about Call of Duty too. As for Halo, the loss is already huge. It can't get worse so hopefully it will get better now that they reorganized 343i.
 
Everything MS touches dies. I saw this coming from a mile away. I tried to warn people but some people are too attached to their brand loyalty and getting cheap games from a service to see the disaster that was looming with MS purchasing ABK. If this rumor is true then COD is completely fucked.
 

Tg89

Member
This story would be hard to believe in MS hadn't consistently been making poor decisions for the last decade. Arguably the most poorly managed company in gaming. These are the dumbasses that gave Halo to 343.


Can anyone name a single thing that has become BETTER after being acquired by MS?
 
Last edited:

StereoVsn

Gold Member
Considering the news lately, I can't outright dismiss it, but this story doesn't sound right. Why completely overhaul the thing that you probably spent the most of that 69 billion for?
Because your expensive McKinsey MBA consultant is telling you that you can save $millions on labor! Just ignore that you will tank $multi billion franchise.

This is MS though so it’s totally believable. And that explains the firings. They are going to replace expensive permanent employees with cheap labor.

I don’t know why anyone expected anything good out of company which has been mismanaging their studios for last 15 years.

Also, M&As and giant corpos buying up everything. Isn’t it grand? Just what all MS fans wanted.
 
Last edited:

Pelta88

Member
Given how Infinite turned out I’m hoping this isn’t true and that Charlie intel is wrong on this one…

Like everyone else I’m confused as to why they bought Acti and why purchase the publisher for such an absurdly inflated price?
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom