Famed Call of Duty developer Treyarch is shrugging off criticisms about its aging game engine.
The infrastructure that makes the game Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 run is now seven years old, and anyone knows that in this industry, anything that old should be looked at as a relic. That means the engine outdates the launch of the PS3 and the Wii.
Of course, it isn’t the exact same platform as the one that was powering Treyarch’s games in 2005. There have been several modifications over the years, but the fact remains that the company hasn’t built a brand new engine since the final days of PS2 and Xbox gaming, and that has led to some fans calling for a complete overhaul.
Black Ops design director David Vondehaar disagrees, however.
“Anybody who comes at the engine needs to remember it’s the 60 frames they love in the first place, and we can make it beautiful – that’s through years and years of working with the engine, improving upon it and improving the pipeline and improving our approach, our lighting rendering,” Vondehaar said.
“People like to talk about the engine, but the truth of the matter is that this isn’t like something that was invented six years ago. At this point that engine doesn’t resemble anything like any engine – we’ve ripped out the new UI system, the rendering and the lighting are all new, the core gameplay systems are all new,” he continued.
Black Ops 2 smashed world records when it went on sale, and Call of Duty fanatacism is as strong as it’s ever been, so there really isn’t any need for Treyarch to reinvent the wheel. Maybe when the PS4 and Xbox 720 are released, though…
