Criticizing Prioritization Choices: Former Call of Duty Producer Accuses Activision of Valuing Fear of Missing Out Over Quality

Criticizing Prioritization Choices: Former Call of Duty Producer Accuses Activision of Valuing Fear of Missing Out Over Quality

In the golden age of Call of Duty, Mark Rubin was a prominent figure. For a decade, he served as an executive producer at Infinity Ward, guiding the game's rise following the original Modern Warfare in 2007. He was the guy you'd often see in dev logs or on E3 stages, discussing Captain Price's latest adventures with enthusiasm. After leaving the company in 2015, most recently he was an executive producer on XDefiant—Ubisoft's attempt at a free-to-play CoD alternative. Sadly, this project was shut down last year. To put it simply, Rubin has a deep-rooted history with Call of Duty and isn't a fan of what the series has transformed into since his departure.

In response to an XDefiant fan on Reddit, Rubin candidly expressed his discontent with modern game development, taking aim at his old employer.

"Thank you! A whole lot of games, including Call of Duty, prioritize earning the most money possible from their player base," Rubin wrote. "They rely heavily on fear-of-missing-out marketing and engagement-optimized matchmaking matches, but I feel like it used to be more about the quality of the game which drove players to play."

Rubin appears particularly irked by the excessive number of limited-time modes, aggressive seasonal marketing, and an obsession with player metrics that, in his eyes, often overshadows creating meaningful updates. He also dislikes Call of Duty's matchmaking algorithm that prioritizes factors such as time-to-match, skill level, and playlist diversity to keep players engaged longer. XDefiant set itself apart by having no skill-based matchmaking, leading to unpredictable lobby compositions.

"A game should have a high player count because it's good and people want to play it rather than people playing it because the game has a massive marketing budget," he wrote. "Everything I just said is simplified as it would take too long to truly delve into it. One last simple comparison: Be more like Larian, less like Activision."

One individual in Rubin's replies pointed out that it's not entirely fair to blame Call of Duty for fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) marketing since XDefiant also had live service elements like a battle pass and paid skins. Rubin conceded that point.

"As a free-to-play game, we did have FOMO content. However, one of the planned features would help players earn currency just by playing to buy old content. In terms of marketing, though, we had barely any budget."

XDefiant, at its launch, felt like a game plucked from 2009, featuring a streamlined loadout builder, modest attachments, and classic FPS playlists within the framework of a 2020s live-service product. Its simplistic, back-to-basics approach was a significant part of XDefiant's appeal. Some fans reminisce about a time before CoD was a "clown show of ugly skins."

I think Rubin is sincere when he says there were plans to make XDefiant a purer, player-centric, less money-hungry alternative to CoD, but given Ubisoft's financial struggles due to a series of live-service failures, it might have been the wrong time and place to make that happen.

Morgan ParkMorgan has been penning for PC Gamer since 2018, working first as a freelancer and now as a staff writer. Before that, he spent high school and college writing for small gaming sites that didn't compensate him. He's delighted to have a real job now. Essentially, Morgan covers the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also contributes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and corny jokes in Slack. When pressured, he might even write about a tedious strategy game. Please don't.

1. Mark Rubin, expressing his discontent with modern gaming, criticized Call of Duty for prioritizing earnings over game quality.
2. Rubin admired the old days when games were played because of their quality, not because of massive marketing budgets.
3. Rubin, in his critique, highlighted the excess of limited-time modes, aggressive seasonal marketing, and an obsession with player metrics in modern games.
4. Rubin praised Larian Studios for their approach to game development, contrasting it with Activision's methods.
5. A reddit user pointed out that XDefiant, a game Rubin worked on, also had live-service elements like a battle pass and paid skins.
6. Rubin admitted that XDefiant did have FOMO content but emphasized their plan to let players earn currency just by playing to buy old content.
7. XDefiant, at its launch, felt like a game from 2009 with a streamlined loadout builder, modest attachments, and classic FPS playlists within a 2020s live-service product.
8. The simplicity and back-to-basics approach of XDefiant was one of its key appeals, reminding some fans of a time before CoD was filled with "ugly skins" and clown show-like elements.

Read also: