Sledgehammer Worked With Pentagon Advisor For Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Does Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare’s scenario of a private military contractor (PMC) going rogue and trying to seize power sound farfetched to you? Maybe, but you might be surprised. Sledgehammer Games said it was presented as the most plausible “next threat” scenarios by one of raft of military experts and futurists they consulted for the game, an advisor still active with the Pentagon.
“We thought that was fascinating and provocative,” Sledgehammer Games Co-Founder Michael Condrey told The Guardian. “What happens when an organisation that’s built for profit has access to all the latest weapons and technology – an organisation that can operate outside of the Geneva Convention, that can be purchased by the highest bidder? What if that got out of control?
“This was around the time that Greece was collapsing economically, there were riots – and there was an understanding that, the reason PMCs have had such an opportunity to grow, is that funding a standing army is very expensive for a modern nation state. Why not outsource war? It’s better for PR – you don’t have to explain to parents why their kids are dying in battles on foreign soil.”
The advisor actually ruled out China, a Russian resurgence, and an expanded Islamic threat in favor of his Blackwater gone bad, or uh, worse, theory, which is both comforting and extremely troubling at the same time. According to the Guardian article Jonathan Irons, the CEO of rogue PMC Atlas who is portrayed by Kevin Spacey in the game, is even modeled after controversial Blackwater founder Erik Prince, who has several run-ins with the government over his company’s controversial multi-million-dollar security operations in Iraq.
Condrey also said that even though the tech in the game might seem far-fetched, all of it comes from consulting with futurists and military advisers. Call of Duty has a lot of fans, and they’ve been able to get some big names to help.
“Often, we are able to extend our network through existing relationships within the Call of Duty franchise. For example, we worked with Mark Bohl, writer of Hurt Locker, and were put in contact with his retired Navy Seal Team 6 adviser through shared contacts. Other times, we research experts in the field and reach out directly. Retired Delta Commander, Dalton Furty, is an example. We read his book, Kill Bin Laden, and made an inquiry on his interest and availability,” Condrey said.
Condrey said that only weapons and gadgets that are currently in the prototype stage were allowed into the game. One that didn’t make the cut was a proposed teleportation grenade, which was dismissed as “science fiction.”