Gameplay of an unreleased Call of Duty title, codenamed NX1 shows a moon-based firefight from legendary gaming studio Neversoft/Activision.
Details have emerged online, including a YouTube video of gameplay in progress that shows the frames per second (FPS) and other performance indicators used by developers when crafting a game.
Gameplay confirmed
Brian Bright would play a huge part in the evolution of Neversoft with his work on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and, latterly, the Call of Duty series for Infinity Ward.
Bright responded to the recently released materials on X (formerly Twitter);
This was NX1, after IW imploded and split into Respawn Neversoft pivoted from Guitar Hero to make a futuristic COD game. This mission was on the moon, some experiments with low g and was really about the team learning the engine. We were making GH games on our THPS engine prior.
— Brian Bright (@BrianBright) January 28, 2024
He would post further down the chain of social media posts about the in-development project that “this would have been in place of [2013’s Call of Duty] Ghosts.”
“We had 2-3 campaign missions and a bunch of MP [multi-player work] work done (I was mp lead on this) before cancellation. One thing we really liked in mp was the first Escort mode in COD. There is footage out there on this.”
Bright would become synonymous with Call of Duty: Zombies and many legendary multi-player maps, earning him a place as one of the most respected producers in video game history.
Neversoft
Neversoft ranked amongst the highest-performing studios of the 1990s. The development team was responsible for the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series, Guitar Hero and the original Playstation take on the world of Peter Parker.
Bright is hugely responsible for the iconic maps and the unforgettable soundtrack that defined the many iterations of the franchise.
The game engines for Spider-Man and Tony Hawk were the same, with the webhead himself appearing as a hidden playable 360, halfpipe tumbling, and sidewalk grinding character.
Many of the much loved Spider-Man: The Animated Series voice actors would reprise their roles for the first “thwip” on a Sony console.
This is a far cry from the current highest-grossing Sony studio-backed Spider-Man 2 on the PlayStation 5, but it holds a special reverence for gamers.
On May 3, 2014, Neversoft was merged into Infinity Ward — and the rest is video game history. Infinity Ward would become one of the three supporting pillars of the Call of Duty franchise and a core part of the Activision/Blizzard’s money-making powerhouse.
Call of Duty
Brian Bright has since retired from his post under the Activision family umbrella, but the war machine of Call of Duty rumbles on.
New titles are planned up to 2027 for Call of Duty studios Sledgehammer, Treyarch and Activision, however there is unrest with the staff at some of the studios with hybrid-working at the heart of the matter.
The gaming franchise has also incorporated artificial intelligence to detect hate speech and breaches of the online code of conduct set out by the studio’s online multiplayer.
Image Credit: Photo by Pixabay; Pexels
