Treyarch sorry for slating BIA

By Robert Purchese Published 1 July, 2008

It's not "a crappy war game" after all.

Treyarch has apologised for comments calling Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway "a crappy war game".

The Call of Duty: World at War developer said it found the statement made by an Activision rep "offensive", and that it had "nothing but respect" for its World War II competitor Gearbox.

"Over the weekend, we learned that some disparaging comments were made by an Activision rep at a recent Call of Duty: World at War press event. We want to let everyone know that we found those remarks offensive, and they do not in any way represent the feelings of any developer at this studio or at Activision," said "JD", Treyarch community manager, on the Xbox forums (spotted by Kotaku).

"We hold all of our peers in the development community in the highest regard. We have nothing but respect for the guys and gals at Gearbox."

The offending comments were made to Eurogamer Germany by Noah Heller, senior producer on COD5. He concluded that Hell's Highway wasn't "in the same league" after watching a trailer for the game.

"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. That's the competition. We want to look at the games that do great storytelling," Heller told Eurogamer Germany.

"We don't want to look at someone who's just making a crappy war game."

Head over to Eurogamer TV for the full interview, or into our Call of Duty: World at War gamepage to find out more.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (36) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • Darren #1 4 years ago

    No, BIA isn't a crappy game, Treyarch, yours usually are!!! ;)

  • Benno #2 4 years ago

    lol at this

    COD3 is shit etc.

    yawn

  • frostcircus #3 4 years ago

    I see words, but I don't see a head on a pike. I don't think you're sorry at all.

  • kiroquai #4 4 years ago

    Thing is though, it wasn't even a Treyarch employee who made the comment in the first place so there's no point hounding them about something a rep from their publishers said.

    That being said, well done to them for making a public apology on his behalf.

  • keyboardmonkey #5 4 years ago

    We hold all of our peers in the development community in the highest regard. We have nothing but respect for the guys and gals at Gearbox."

    Mmm he said the game was crap not the people developing it.

    Why are games companies so scared of point out what they think is rubbish in other peoples games?

  • lambtron #6 4 years ago

    Producers.

    Invariably tools.

  • kangarootoo #7 4 years ago

    Good on Treyarch for distancing themselves from some feckless idiot who happens to work for the same company.

    First week in the job was it I wonder? Someone won't be speaking in public again for some time.

    @keyboardmonkey

    Its not really about constructive critism of competing products though is it? The guy in question was just being unprofessional. If he had been at home, posting on here, he could say what he liked. But at the time he was working, representing his employer. His words weren't contructive and tbh sounded like those of some internet poster, not someone apparently working in PR.

  • kangarootoo #8 4 years ago

    @lambtron

    I know plenty of very good producers. I think you will find that,

    "Tools.

    Invariably tools."

    is rather more accurate.

  • lambtron #9 4 years ago

    There are good ones sure enough.

    But many people have only had the misfortune to work with dullards.

    Sad but true.

  • onezeonx #10 4 years ago

    i bet it is crappy!

  • keyboardmonkey #11 4 years ago

    @kangarootoo

    In the IT industry (not games) I haven't had a sales rep turn up yet who hasn't mentioned what their software can do above and beyond the competitions.

    Many doing side by side comparisons.

    @Arbiter

    Yes i know, people in glass houses etc...

  • davisorle #12 4 years ago

    Shoot the poor bastard. Just for that and i was already so into buying the Hell's game, Im just going to download and burn the DOC5. No more money for assholes like them. I'll make sure i buy a copy of the other one tho :) Ofc they wont feel the difference. But Same way i don't pay for Sony crap while they think they can do what they want and get away with it same goes with everything else really. I have lost a job with that attitude but it worked out for the best and got fast promoted on the next one ( competitors ) when they found out so... I just LOVE reacting to everything. Hope BIA 2 does way better than COD5 just to shut that fuck up. Even if he was right it's really not his fucking job to open his mouth that much imo.

    peace :)

  • Darren #13 4 years ago

    DOC5... what's that? Duty of the Call 5? LOL

  • T4RG4 #14 4 years ago

    I don't see what the big deal is - if he thinks another title is crappy then say it. Just pray that your title does well and theirs actually turns out to be poor (which, if truth being told I think it does from videos I've seen).

  • BadBoyBonner #15 4 years ago

    Is Doc-5 the western equivalent of Trauma Centre? Seems I missed the first 4 but look forward to Doc 5 - perhaps in the UK it will be called Dr. 5?

  • kangarootoo #16 4 years ago

    @keyboardmonkey

    The devil is in the detail here. The guys that you meet with a) might use the word crappy, but probably not that often, b) are just meeting with you in private.

    Calling your competitor's product crappy on a public stage is really the bit I take issue with, not the comparison or critism of products in general.

  • kiroquai #17 4 years ago

    Yeah - at the end of the day, if you're in the industry then you've got to have respect for other peoples' work. If you're a consumer then that's fair enough as you have the right to have and share an opinion given that you are paying for the product and - to a degree - peeps in the industry have that right too, but in our case you kind of keep them private as we're in the same boat so to speak.

  • mikeck #18 4 years ago

    "Good on Treyarch for distancing themselves from some feckless idiot who happens to work for the same company."

    Not the same company though, Treyarch are doing work on an Activision title, so an Activision rep shouldn't be opening his fat gob on behalf of the developers, that's just idiotic.

  • mikeck #19 4 years ago

    "Hope BIA 2 does way better than COD5 just to shut that fuck up"

    Very admirable intentions there...NOT. Why should Treyarch suffer because some PR monkey from Activision spouts off?

  • SBfistfun #20 4 years ago

    To be fair BIA 2 look shite.

  • RevanEleven #21 4 years ago

    Well if COD5 doesn't turn out to be shit, I'll be surprised.

  • sharky_ob #22 4 years ago

    It won't be shit, it'll just be average.

  • DUFFKING #23 4 years ago

    Shh, we all know that a game being pretty decent yet not as good as it's predcecessor makes it shit.

  • Fab4 #24 4 years ago

    Eurogamer, home of the Mystic Meg Appreciation Society.

  • MasterNameless #25 4 years ago

    Mystic Meg is average too.

  • Feanor #26 4 years ago

    Duty Calls will be a much better game than either of these two.

  • Ninja_Tino #27 4 years ago

    Wow, TreyArch have failed to ever make a great game, even when shamelessly imitating the game before.

  • Hunam #28 4 years ago

    Call of Duty 2: Big Red One was a fucking fantastic game. I enjoyed it a country mile more than CoD2.

  • DUFFKING #29 4 years ago

    Ninja, you do realise that it's a sequel to an established brand, right? You seriously expected them to change everything just for the sake of not having people whine about OMG THEY'RE COPYING CoD! You know, it's supposed to be the same game ;)

  • peppergomez #30 4 years ago

    tempest in a fucking teacup--who cares?
    that said, both bia and the cod series are crappy war games. big budget production values, yes, but uninspired, paint by numbers railshooters too. pot calling the kettle black.

  • Skywise #31 4 years ago

    "we play Gears of War, we play Halo. That's the competition. We want to look at the games that do great storytelling,"

    Sorry I must have missed the great storytelling bits in these games.

  • timberwolf #32 4 years ago

    but it does look crappy. REALLY crappy.

  • stallion185 #33 4 years ago

    The amount of tools who post when they haven't even read the article is amazing

  • Fab4 #34 4 years ago

    Quite a few of the people responsible for Return to Castle Wolfenstein (SP), are still employed at Treyarch...did they somehow mysteriously get shit at developing games? RtCW is the template on which modern shooters are based, imho.

  • SpyroViper #35 4 years ago

    Someones going to get fired. Maybe when the game ships, Noah Heller won't be in the Senior Producer section, lol!

  • Athrack #36 4 years ago

    Someone is about to lose their job.