Treyarch and Activision distance themselves from Black Ops Declassified

By: Musa Afridi

  |   September 15th, 2012   |  

Uncategorized

Both the developers and the publishers of the IP have denied any direct involvement with the upcoming PlayStation Vita first-person shooter, claiming they simply consulted the developers, Nihilistic, on the fiction.

It seems that Black Ops: Declassified, the first game under the Call of Duty brand to be released on the PlayStation Vita, is a game that the publisher wants to distance itself from. Activision came out and announced earlier on that they had nothing to do with developing the PlayStation Vita version of their series.

Treyarch also shared the news that they were only consulting the developers, Nihilistic, on maintaining the fiction of the universe and were not directly involved in developing the gameplay, multiplayer or any other aspect of the game for that matter.

The statements almost seem as if both Treyarch and Activision want to distance themselves from the title, which so far has left a large number of gamers unimpressed.

Clarifying their part in Declassified, Activision issued the following statement:

“Activision is the publisher, but we also have a partnership with Sony to bundle Declassified with the PlayStation Vita.” before Treyarch stated that they were simply “consulted to ensure accuracies within the fiction.”

One could say that Declassified is doomed from the start but Nihilistic will have learned some lessons from their recently developed title, Resistance: Burning Skies. Although that particular game lacked the polish of a triple-A title as well as an engaging story, the shooting mechanics and gameplay were enjoyable.

However, so far critics seem to consider Declassified a step backwards, as the visuals seem substandard and the gameplay not as fluid as one is used to seeing in a Call of Duty title. Many are blaming Sony for being cynical and developing a game in-house and releasing it under a third-party banner.

Whether or not Declassified sells will depend largely on the review scores, as analysts predict that PlayStation Vita users, both current and potential, will be extremely cautious on the matter of approaching the game. Positive reviews will persuade gamers while mixed reviews will result in the game slipping up on the sales front.

All in all, Declassified is shaping up to the kind of title that will either go on to sell rather well or crash and burn and remembered in the same light as Haze was on the PlayStation 3.

It seems that only time will tell but what about the readers; do they think that Declassified will do justice to one of the best-selling franchises of all time or do they think it’s a half-hearted effort by Sony in order to boost the sales of their PlayStation Vita consoles? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.