Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was a big deal back in 2002. Its cinematic take on World War II, and especially the Omaha Beach landing, earned it our Best Action Game of the Year award, and made it one of 2002’s must-play games. The third in the Medal of Honor series, it had been farmed out to a new developer called 2015, Inc. Publisher Electronic Arts decided not to keep 2015 on for the inevitable follow-up, however, bringing the series in-house.
Which left 2015 at a loose end. Having been given a tight deadline to crank out a franchise entry and then absolutely smashing it, the studio assumed it would be allowed a second chance. When EA decided not to keep them around, a chunk of 2015 including Allied Assault’s development director Vince Zampella went to EA’s rival Activision, started a new studio called Infinity Ward, and invented Call of Duty.
If EA had kept them around, 2015 would presumably have happily kept making Medal of Honor games for them and Call of Duty wouldn’t have become a thing. Or, to put it another way, “The only reason that Call of Duty exists is because EA were dicks,” as Zampella recently told GQ Magazine.
