Raven Software, the support studio behind recent titles of the Call of Duty franchise like Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, has assisted lead studios in developing the games. However, it has been revealed that the studio was once working on a standalone Zombies game based on Treyarch’s game mode that fans have been long requesting.
The fans were on the verge of getting the game until the IP owner decided to pull the plug on it over a decade ago, just a few months into initial development. The main reason behind the cancellation of the Zombies project is attributed to the popularity and success of the battle royale title Warzone.
A Call of Duty Zombies Live Service Game Was Canceled
The news comes from the LinkedIn profile of Michael Gummelt, a former lead designer at Raven Software. Gummelt listed working on an “unreleased Call of Duty Zombies live service game” from November 2011 to June 2012 before it was canceled by Activision Studio. The listing states that Gummelt was the lead designer for the game, which he calls “an ambitious new Call of Duty: Zombies live service project.”
It is also mentioned that the live-service game was canceled when an Activision studio, which owns that part of the IP, wanted it back. Although he did not name any studio, it is presumably hinting at Treyarch as it created the Zombies mode, which first debuted in Call of Duty: World at War in 2008 before becoming popular and is present in the studio’s future games.
Raven Software had even announced that it was working on a stand-alone Call of Duty game, calling it an “ambitious live service version” of Zombies, but it never saw the light of day, and now it is known why. The Zombies game was canceled in 2012, the same year that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was released and expanded the Zombies mode.
This could mean that Treyarch took back the IP because of the expansion for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which is still considered one of the best games in the franchise even after over a decade of its release. Call of Duty Zombies is one of the most popular game modes in the series, and it has its own following. Players have always loved playing it. It can only be assumed how the game would have turned out at launch, but seeing its popularity, it would have worked well.
Gummelt’s profile also reveals that Activision canceled another game from Raven Software that he was working on as the lead developer because it wanted to focus on Warzone. The listing states the studio was working on the game as part of Activision’s “Press Start” initiative, but it too was canceled after Warzone was released in 2020 and was highly successful.
The listing reads that Gummelt was the lead developer on a small incubation team and had developed “two highly playable” prototypes as “proof of concept.” It cannot be said for sure which game Gummelt is referring to, but it is speculated that the game was a new title in the Hexen/Heretic series. Raven Software was popular for Hexen before it jumped onto the Call of Duty franchise.
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