5000 applied to work on COD

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 6 August, 2010

Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer ranks swell.

Activision has so far received 5000 applications to work at Call of Duty developers Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer following the sacking of Vince Zampella and Jason West.

The eye-watering figure suggests Activision's high-profile falling out with Zampella and West hasn't put game developers off working under the publishing behemoth.

Three studios are currently working on the Call of Duty franchise: Modern Warfare creators Infinity Ward, Black Ops developer Treyarch, and the newly formed Sledgehammer Games, which is hard at work on a Call of Duty first-person shooter.

"We have and will continue to strengthen our Call of Duty Studios with additional talent and financial resources," chief financial officer Thomas Tippl said during an investor call last night.

"Year-to-date, we have received approximately 5000 applications for positions at our Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Studios alone. And out of that incredible pool, we've selected approximately 60 extremely talented individuals to join our teams.

"These additions have been important, and we've been very pleased with the game development you've seen from both studios to date."

Tippl said Activision has developed "a number of new initiatives" in relation to COD and a mystery first-person shooter – is he on about Sledgehammer's game?

"In addition to Black Ops, we had developments on a number of new initiatives, each of which are being specifically designed to expand and improve the Call of Duty single player and online experience, including our next first person shooter, which is expected to launch next year," he said.

"By establishing a standalone Call of Duty business unit, we have been able to focus our resources against this large and growing franchise.

"In just a few months, we have already realized significant synergies and benefits which were never before possible, including better communication and greater collaborations among our studios, all of which should benefit the launch of Black Ops and future Call of Duty initiatives, and most importantly, will provide our highly engaged Call of Duty community with an improved and seamless player experience."

So, what do we know about what Sledgehammer's up to?

In June it relaunched its website and revealed it had hired more than 50 people to work on its new COD game.

In January Dead Space creator and Sledgehammer head honcho Glen Schofield said his game will be "quite unique" and "bring something new and exciting to our fans".

But what of Modern Warfare 3?

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (44) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • CaptainQuint #1 2 years ago

    Lambs to the slaughter.

  • Ryboy #2 2 years ago

    I applied for the position of "Giant twat, slight experience in making games an advantage but not necessary".

    I haven't heard anything yet.

  • AphoticCosmos #3 2 years ago

    When I first read the title I thought it referred to 5000 developers all working on the next Call of Duty, and I had this mental image of endless rows of desks with malnourished, ponytailed programmers chained together and being whipped to code faster, nervously glancing up at the huge screen with a repeating video of Bobby Kotick laughing his arse off and rolling in money.

    Probably not actually far from the truth.

    "There are desks, Zampella. Endless desks. Where programmers are not born . . . they are grown."

  • EgbertoTheGreat #4 2 years ago

    Sorry Ryboy,

    The industry's already chock full of giant twats. No room at the Inn.

  • CaptainQuint #5 2 years ago

    What an odd coincidence: that is exactly the same number of people that applied to work on the Death Star.

  • teabagger #6 2 years ago

    I think they're confusing 'wanting to work for them' with 'wanting to make a quick buck then piss off elsewhere'.

  • evilrobot #7 2 years ago

    The world really is full of morons.

  • smelly #8 2 years ago

    Ive worked in the industry for 10 years before leaving 5 years ago... 5000 applications is NOTHING... If you advertise for a game job, expect 1000's of applications, 99.999% of them are from complete wasters who think they can do the job because they play games with their mates.

    5000 applications is NOTHING... ESPECIALLY for the studio who worked on COD for fucks sake!

    This is NOT something for them to brag about! But yet to the average joe it SOUNDS like a large number... So it's good publicity..

    Making news out of no news is something molyneux learned YEARS ago.. looks like the rest of the industry is beginning to catch up.

  • RexRunti #9 2 years ago

    I wonder how many CVs consisted of the phrase "Whilst I have no experience in making games...", I'm guessing 4,940.

    Edit: Damn, smelly got there first.
    Edited by 1 at 06/08/10 @ 09:28

  • gjgjg #10 2 years ago

    were they all emo self loathers? :p
    i kid

  • FreakyZoid #11 2 years ago

    The real question is how many of those applications are from people with any experience. I could see if you were looking to get in to the industry, getting a single CoD on your CV would open doors. Might be worth a year of pain.

    I mean, "We had 5000 applications" means nothing. How many of them were good enough that you decided to bring them in for interview?

    edit: I type too slow.
    Edited by 1 at 06/08/10 @ 09:32

  • SilverInfinity #12 2 years ago

    5000 people want to get f****d in the ass then?

  • ignatiusjreilly #13 2 years ago

    Did they day the positions were even for developers?

    We had nearly 2000 applications for a single office admininistrator role at work, and we are a pretty small, relatively unknown company.

  • spiritsnake #14 2 years ago

    5000 yawn

  • CaptainQuint #15 2 years ago

    By all accounts it's still not as many as CoD4

    "fifteen thousand people..."

  • SBfistfun #16 2 years ago

    In just a few months, we have already realized significant synergies

    You fucking what?

  • cw- #17 2 years ago

    @smelly
    5000 applications is NOTHING... If you advertise for a game job, expect 1000's of applications

    5000 is thousands's (1000's) :p

  • LPXO #18 2 years ago

    That doesn't mean shit. The 5000 could have been rabid fans who had just finished school with a D in maths

  • NimbusTLD #19 2 years ago

    Fuck Modern Warfare 3! Bring on Space Warfare wooooooo!!!!

  • TheTingler #20 2 years ago

    Okay, officially bored now.

    In Call of Duty that is. I don't think I'll be buying any more...
    Edited by 1 at 06/08/10 @ 12:24

  • ZeroAX #21 2 years ago

    um. bad economy = will take any job that pays....even if it's close to slave labor

  • kristo #22 2 years ago

    What it takes, to rock, is to suck some corporate cock, what it takes, to score, is to be a corporate whore!

  • metalangel #23 2 years ago

    "Synergies" *is sick in mouth*

  • sneetch #24 2 years ago

    @CaptainQuint
    What an odd coincidence: that is exactly the same number of people that applied to work on the Death Star.

    I just sprayed my breakfast over my monitor. Anyone know how you get cornflakes out of the space between the LCD and the frame without damaging the LCD fabric?

  • feistycheese #25 2 years ago

    what they fail to mention is that of the 5000, 90% were turned down for ticking 'yes', to the question 'do you believe terrorists are living on the same street as you, and do you sleep with a gun under your pillow?'

  • geeza2020 #26 2 years ago

    I tried to read that article but my mind just started feeding white noise into my ears as soon as that cunt started talking about initiatives/business unit/synergies. Well I'm sure whatever he said was a great insight and a credit to the creative industries. Right?

  • Golgo #27 2 years ago

    "...the newly formed Sledgehammer Games, which is hard at work on a Call of Duty first-person shooter." LOL. Nice one.

  • Dylbot #28 2 years ago

    SCABS

  • Bremenacht #29 2 years ago

    If you simply must have a big IP like this on your CV, then lie, and spend the six months you would have lasted dossing around playing games instead.

  • darkmorgado #30 2 years ago

    In other words, an internal memo went out to all Activision Employees:

    "Apply for this job or you'll lose your current one".

  • darkmorgado #31 2 years ago

    Besides, 5,000?

    These days I don't consider anything less than 10m a hit.

  • beastmaster #32 2 years ago

    To have worked on COD would look great on a CV. A big release, regardless of quality always impresses. Some people will go through hell for a couple of years just to do it.

  • sickpuppysoftware #33 2 years ago

    Sample CV

    Name: //~~NinjaKillA~~\\
    Age: 8 1/2
    Address: USA

    Qualifications: KD Ratio of 2.5
    Knife Skillz
    Own headset

    Why do you want to work on CoD:
    cos I is da bestest n****r killa around. Man itd be sweet playin gamez all day.

    I am #1 baby!!11!11!!!1!

  • SwitchBladeUK #34 2 years ago

    I really wish the press would stop giving kotick a voice.

  • Skandalle #35 2 years ago

    How many of those 5k agree with the noob-tube?
    On one hand i bet....stop putting it in!

  • kangarootoo #36 2 years ago

    Deer Soap

    I wud lik to wurk on yor gam. I am 14 nd play games a whole lot and no I wud be good at makin them lol.

    L8rs


    Edit: Ahhh, sickpuppysoftware got there first really :)
    Edited by 1 at 06/08/10 @ 16:42

  • MegaCadet #37 2 years ago

    Why so many damn COD developers! It's the same generic game! Activision needs to stop milking the damn series so much.

  • mrboshingles #38 2 years ago

    For some reason I read the tagline that they'd be using an Amiga 5000 to create the new COD, Amos pro FTW!

  • Vyggo #39 2 years ago

    You know, it might actually have improved the interdependence between teams. Removing the elitist figure heads from Infinity Ward and getting some new guys in could be the fresh breath of air CoD deperately needs.

    Making three CoD games at once might be overkill though and reeks like oversaturating the market.

    Also, I hope the old infinity ward guys are working on a small scale shooter with some original elements, like a focus on small scale tactical play instead of twitch.

  • Number1Laing #40 2 years ago

    The worst economy in decades, they would've had 5000 people lining up to build Guitar Hero: AssRock Deluxe for the Commodore 64.

  • actionfitz #41 2 years ago

    "The eye-watering figure suggests Activision's high-profile falling out with Zampella and West hasn't put game developers off working under the publishing behemoth."

    This Just In:

    PEOPLE IN WANTING JOBS IN RECESSION SHOCKER!!!

  • Miths #42 2 years ago

    "... and the newly formed Sledgehammer Games, which is hard at work on a Call of Duty first-person shooter."

    Fantastic news - I've been waiting for the CoD franchise to give the FPS genre a try. You can only play so many turn based puzzle games with assault rifles before they all start to look a bit too familiar.

  • Kerome #43 2 years ago

    Fools. When given the choice between COD and SOUL one should always choose soul ;) Go on, we know that at heart they all want to be indie devs ;)

  • EraSerX #44 2 years ago

    I wonder how many applied at Respawn ...