The first Call of Duty was codenamed "Medal of Honor Killer," former Infinity Ward artist Justin Thomas has revealed.
Speaking to MCV, lead designer Zied Rieke discussed the bitter rivalry between Activision and Electronic Arts in the World War II first-person shooter space, saying:
It wasn’t just Medal of Honor we were wary of being similar to, because most of the World War II games at the time followed that formula, like Return to Castle Wolfenstein, which was kind of a super-spy in WWII story.
During the first year of Call of Duty development, the game was much more like Allied Assault. There was a James Bond-like character, doing a secret mission to stop the Nazis developing a nuclear bomb. There was a German scientist, and a German scientist’s daughter. Medal of Honor was a ‘James Bond in World War II’ kind of game, and that is what we were pretty much making.
Seeing has how EA decided to pull the Medal of Honor franchise out of its rotation since Warfighter failed to find much success, I'd say Infinity Ward—and Activision for that matter—accomplished COD's original goal.
