“We don’t even think about them”

So said Activision Senior Producer: Noah Heller. When interviewed about how he regarded the largest competition for Call of Duty: World at War, Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway developed by Gearbox.

“We don’t even think about them. They’re not a game we even think about when we’re playing, we think about the best shooters, we play [Call of Duty 4] Modern Warfare, we play… Gears of War, we play Halo, you know, that’s the competition. We want to look at the games that do great storytelling.” 

Only digging himself and his company into a deeper PR ditch Heller goes on to say:

“We don’t want to look at someone who’s just making a crappy war game.”

While it must be said Noah Heller does not represent the views and opinions of the entire Activision studio or Treyarch the company behind the development of Call of Duty: World at War. You have to wonder how he can make such comments with a straight face when BIA is a large established franchise of its own. 

The first Call of Duty spin off (Call of Duty 3) developed by Treyarch and published by Activision received an average rating of 82% on Metacritic however is looked back upon by fans of the series as a low point. The first Brother In Arms game (Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30) was given an 88% and in turn is widely considered one of the only WWII games not getting stale.

A developer at Treyarch later made a post on Xbox Forums making it clear that Treyarch does not share these feelings towards BIA or Gearbox the company who develops it.