The reputation surrounding the latest Call of Duty is interesting, to say the least. MW3 is one of the biggest content offerings to date for the long-running FPS franchises, and despite Sledgehammer Games’ best intentions, both fans and industry peers continue to be vocal about the state of Modern Warfare 3. Now, Captain Price voice actor and motion capture artist Barry Sloane is responding to backlash around the game, after comments made by God of War star Christopher Judge at The Game Awards.
If you tuned into The Game Awards, you’ll have seen God of War Ragnarök star Christopher Judge (Kratos) take to the stage early on, playfully taking aim at his own long speech last year. During this comedic bit about his famous 8-minute speech, Judge goes on to joke that “fun fact, my speech was actually longer than this year’s Call of Duty campaign…another company [Activision] I’ll never work for.” At least he’s in what is regarded one of the best PS5 games around, though.
Now, we know that the jury is still out on whether MW3 is one of the best FPS games of the year, but the joke appears to have rubbed Sloane the wrong way, initially. “That Christopher Judge guy writes all his own material, I hear. Talented,” Sloane writes on social media. Accompanying this is a clown face emoji, so make of that what you will. Naturally, the brief shot back at Judge is prompting a myriad of replies, including this one from ‘SGGx_K’.
They write that “I respect you as an actor, but this ain’t it. The jab at the rushed production of that campaign was absolutely warranted. I know you’re proud of the team, but the reality is the product provided is sub par, at best.” Sloane doesn’t offer a written comment, but replies with a GIF of The Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want. However, after stewing on the situation, Sloane goes on to say that “nah, all’s far in games of war, he was boss in Stargate.”
While Sloane appears to be over Judge’s small joke, Call of Duty studio members are joining the social media frontline. Treyarch associate director Nelson Plumey offers his perspective, saying, “imagine having short user engagement once your game is consumed… can’t relate.”
Furthermore, former Infinity Ward senior game designer Ajinkya Limaye adds while the joke is admittedly “funny”, he believes that “the metrics that COD absolutely destroys all of the God of War games (probably combined tbh) in is also equally laughable (if not more).” Other Call of Duty talent are responding to Judge’s comments too, as Sledgehammer Games expert engineer Darcy Sandall addresses the situation, expressing dismay with Judge’s take on the new COD title.
“Honestly, as COD developers, we’ve heard way worse. But we don’t expect it from a peer, at an event that supposed to be celebrating this year’s achievements in gaming. Especially with all the information that was leaked about its development,” Sandall says.
Though Judge’s comment is intended to be taken lightheartedly, the circumstances of which the comment is presented could be construed as ill-timing. With the gaming industry facing an unprecedented amount of layoffs and restructures, taking aim at the work of others during an awards ceremony was never going to land without a hitch.
As for the actual ceremony, further jokes about Modern Warfare 3 were absent, but huge wins for Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2 were easily amid the highlights. Well, apart from that awesome Blade game trailer, and news of an actual Rise of the Ronin PS5 release date.