At this point in time all the majority of us have seen of Infinite Warfare is the reveal trailer (currently racking up so many bad thumbs on YouTube that Activision had to answer questions from investors about it). But a select few pro-level players have already been out to see the game in action, and help shape its multiplayer.
I spoke to Jay Puryear, Treyarch's director of brand development in eSports, at a recent COD League event in Paris, where he explained, “we’ve actually had some of the pro players out already to Infinty Ward to look at the new game”. According to Jay “it’s really the first time that we’ve really started, in the last couple of years, really bringing them in, and getting their feedback definitely helps development”.
“They play at such a high level,” says Jay. “They’re like ‘I expected you to spawn here’ or ‘if I control the map in such a way you should spawn over here.’ So they really help with spawning and tuning, or weapons and content – they have an opinion on all of that”.
With both COD and eSports growing in popularity it’s no surprise to see more of a two way dialogue between high level players and developers. Activision recently announced a deal to stream the two day MLG Anaheim Open live in Facebook, for example, and mainstream penetration only seems like a matter of time.
Seen something newsworthy? Tell us!
