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Call of Duty studio Infinity Ward says upcoming Modern Warfare isn't political

Call of Duty studio Infinity Ward says upcoming Modern Warfare isn't political

The developer behind the forthcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has said that game is not political.

Speaking to Game Informer (below), campaign gameplay director Jacob Minkoff and studio narrative director Taylor Kurosaki are happy to talk up the shooter's mature themes. The duo even says that for something to be political, it would have to be talking about exact governments and organisations, as well as have an actual perspective on events, rather than the vaguer thematic approach that Infinity Ward has taken.

"The question 'Is this a political game?' doesn't actually mean anything, because what does the word 'political' mean to you?" Minkoff said.

"Do we touch topics that bear a resemblance to the geopolitics of the world we live in today? Hell yeah, because that is the subject matter of Modern Warfare. Are we telling a story that has anything to do with the specific governments of any countries that we're portraying? No. So if you're asking is Trump in the video game? No, he isn't."

Kurosaki added: "These are the type of questions that have been asked for the last 50 years. We do talk about concepts like colonialism, occupation, independence and freedom. We don't maybe say those words specifically, but that's the realm we're in. You could have a game set in revolutionary America talk about those exact same things."

Just to indicate how strange this argument is, from Infinity Ward's perspective 1984 wouldn't be a work of political fiction as it doesn't deal with real-world events. 

Since it was announced in May, Infinity Ward has been trying to show how its new Modern Warfare game deals with dark, gritty and mature themes, though it has been roundly criticised for its approach.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.