Sledgehammer Games

Speaking to Eurogamer, Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey revealed that the studio's thirdperson, action adventure Call Of Duty was shelved at the prototype stage because the studio wanted to work on Modern Warfare 3 with Infinity Ward. "We were working on it for about six months," he said. "We had a prototype together that was pretty compelling, and it looked really good. [But] the opportunity to work on the biggest thing in the industry with Infinity Ward was just an opportunity we couldn't [miss]." With some of Sledgehammer's staff having worked on previous games in the series, and others confirmed fans, Condrey described the decision to switch to Modern Warfare 3 as "a nice marriage of experience in the genre and a kind of fan desire to work on this franchise."

Sledgehammer Games VP and COO Michael Condrey has revealed, in a response to a player's question on the studio's blog, that Modern Warfare 3 will offer a Colour Blind Assist mode. "[The number of people with Colour Vision Deficiency varies] depending on which source you quote, but we estimate that nearly a million gamers are playing Call Of Duty every day with this issue," he writes. Modern Warfare 3 is due for release on November 8.

Activision says two million potential testers signed up for July’s Call Of Duty: Elite beta “in less than two weeks”, but that it’s not too late to register your interest if you’d like a free trial of the subscription service ahead of its full launch alongside Modern Warfare 3 in November. “When the studio head at Beachhead said this would be a live beta, he was not kidding — your participation really can make a difference in how Elite evolves,” writes Activision social media boss Dan Amrich. “And don’t be discouraged by the big number, thinking you shouldn’t bother because they already have enough people — two million volunteers among 30 million Call Of Duty players is a small amount. More would be even better.”