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Surprisingly, after more than a decade, we now have details and info of another cancelled Call of Duty game. What makes this interesting, however, is that the developers behind the scenes for this game were the ones who created Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games. Call of Duty: Future Warfare, also known as CoD NX1 is the name of this cancelled project, and it’s not the only Call of Duty game that has never seen the light of day.
Why Was Call of Duty NX1 Cancelled?
In 1999, Activision acquired a new studio: the California-based Neversoft. This studio is best known for working on the Spider-Man, Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games back in the day. But after the departure of many of Infinity Ward’s staff after releasing MW2 2009, Neversoft was tasked to create a full-fledged Call of Duty game.
Sounds big, and the game was actually going to achieve some huge goals by being the first Call of Duty with a futuristic theme, long before Advanced Warfare and Infinite Warfare. However, the game was slated to release in 2013, and before that, the Neversoft team focused on the release of Modern Warfare 3. Unfortunately, after Treyarch released Black Ops 2, the Call of Duty: Future Warfare plans were set aside in favour of Call of Duty: Ghosts.
In fact, many of the character names, designs, and ideas of Call of Duty: Ghosts come from CoD NX1. Neversoft co-developed Ghosts, so they have their fingerprints on the conception of the game. But is this the first time we’re hearing about a cancelled Call of Duty game?
Neversoft’s Cancelled Call of Duty Isn’t Alone On That List
If we look back at the PS3 and PS2 eras, there is info on some unbelievable Call of Duty ideas. For instance, have you ever thought of being one of Julius Caesar’s elite forces in a Call of Duty game? The developers at Vicarious Visions were the team to attempt to bring this idea to life via Call of Duty: Roman Wars; allowing players to fight with spears, bows and arrows, and even ride elephants!
There’s even more, with a Call of Duty title called “Tactics”, being the first strategic CoD game to be released before 2010. The list goes on with a third-person only, and a Vietnam-themed cancelled Call of Duty games. So with this info, there’s no weird thought on how the Future Warfare NX1 project was shut down by Activision. Many prototypes and ideas have been cancelled in the Call of Duty franchise, including a sequel to Advanced Warfare and probably Ghosts.
So, will there ever be a CoD: Future Warfare game upcoming release? Short answer: No. The Neversoft team has merged with Infinity Ward since 2014, and the ideas for that game are already used in Ghosts, and other futuristic Call of Duty titles. Even the name of one of CoD NX1’s final missions “Operation Deadbolt” is currently used in MW3 2023 Zombies! So it’s fine to assume that Future Warfare is well and truly dead and buried.
