THE BUZZ: A third-person Call of Duty game titled, Devil’s Brigade, was cancelled by Activision nine-months into development, according to a new report.

The Verge explains that the publisher assembled a small team to work on third person spin-off set in World War 2 back in 2007, while the original Modern Warfare was preparing for launch. The team comprised of three former EA employees – Jason VandenBerghe, Scott Bandy and Trevor Jalowitz – created a 15 minute “vertical slice” of a squad based shooter, using Italy as the setting.

The game featured a slower pace than the series is known for and the demo featured squad commands and parkour.

“[The vertical slice] didn’t have a whole lot of [cinematic moments],” said designer James Schomer, “but I think a lot of that was planned. We were aware of the cinematic nature that Call of Duty was trending towards. But it was not part of the original demo. It was a ‘this is what we’re shooting for’ sort of thing.”

The demo received positive feedback, but got lost in the shuffle following Activision’s merger with Vivendi back in December 2007. The project was officially cancelled in March 2008.

“Here’s what happened: We were ready for our final green light just as the merger with Vivendi/Blizzard was announced. As is normal in a merger, you do everything you can to clean up your balance sheet,” explained lead designer Kyle Brink. ”A studio that isn’t in full production on a title with major revenue attached to it, which is about to ask for tens of millions in development dollars, is a great candidate for closure at that point. Was this also a way to keep IW happy after they had just produced Modern Warfare and made a hojillion dollars? Perhaps, but nobody ever put it to us that way.”

Some screenshots of the title leaked out and can be found below.

EGM’s TAKE: This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of a third-person Call of Duty title being cancelled before release, Sledgehammer Games was also working on one before they joined with Infinity Ward to create Modern Warfare 3. The concept seems sound enough, but we don’t feel that fans if the series would ever take to a third-person Call of Duty title due to the required change in pace that would have to occur. It appears that any third-person attempt is doomed to failure. And you have to ask yourself, do we really need yet another Call of Duty game?

Would you like to see a third person Call of Duty title? Leave your thoughts below.

Source: The Verge