Infinity Ward Prototyped a “Halo Killer” Project Before Developing Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Going back a decade was a different time for the gaming industry in contrast to where we stand currently; a time that the majority would rank the Xbox 360 as the superior platform for online matchmaking with Call of Duty and Halo topping the competitive market of first-person shooters. However today, it seems the industry has evolved into something foreign than what was as Activision’s franchise is now marketed through PlayStation and the Microsoft’s shooter is awaiting a new title that could reinvigorate the entirety of the series.

In the notion of the two video game series, developer Infinity Ward at one point strived to top and even “take down” Halo with its own space shooter. In an interview with Game Informer, Infinity Ward Studio Art Director Joel Emslie tells of the alleged “Halo killer” that was a side project prior to the development of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Following the release of Call of Duty 2, developer Treyarch went on to take the torch which led to the release for Call of Duty 3 whilst Infinity Ward began drafting the succeeding installment in 2007. Unsure of the next title to follow suit the World War II era, the developer looked to modern conflicts as the potential forthcoming setting, and even then the developer was still hesitant.

We didn’t know if we were going to be able to do a modern game. It was a moment where we really wanted to take down Halo really bad, and we wanted to create a Halo killer. Part of the studio went off and was working on another game to do that.

Initially the studio split into two segments as one prioritized the development of the next Call of Duty while the other developed towards the “Halo killer” prototype project. Ultimately however, the studio soon saw that both projects were very underwhelming due to the team’s division between the two concepts. “The whole Infinity Ward experience is what we make is the sum of the parts, like all the components work together,” Emslie tells Game Informer.

“When you had components missing, it threw the whole thing off balance, and that’s why it was realized pretty quickly, thank God, and they brought everybody back together, and then we dug into Modern Warfare.” And reassuring it was as the now hallmark Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare paid off as the game outsell Bungie’s Halo 3 when the two launched in 2007.

Infinity Ward did confirm that though the prototyped “Halo killer” never made it to becoming a proper title, assets of what was derived from the side project was then used towards the Cryptid alien creatures that players fight off in Call of Duty: Ghosts‘ Extinction mode instead.

Source: Game Informer