Lest Activision continue churning out the same military shooter cliches ad infinitum, a group of Call of Duty fans have pitched their own, surprisingly excellent idea for the next game in the series.
Dubbed “Police Warfare,” the theoretical game is exactly that: A Call of Duty style shooter that drops you into the boots of a SWAT team member, or his heavily-armed criminal analogue. I’m imagining something like Sony’s recent PAYDAY: The Heist, only with the technological muscle and level design capabilities of the people behind the recent Modern Warfare games. Straight up, that’s a thing I would like to play.
Turning away from the theoretical however, this pitch is impressive in its own right. Its creators have sourced media from Michael Mann’s Heat, news coverage of the infamous North Hollywood shootout and tons of existing concept art to create something original, compelling and hopefully polished enough to catch the attention of the people who fund these kinds of things.
Sadly, I’m pretty sure there are some huge legal hurdles swirling around this type of thing. In much the same way that many book publishers refuse to see manuscripts that are sent directly to them (thus avoiding the possibility that they might be sued for plagiarism in the future), I have to assume that Activision won’t be able to view this thing and set to work on such a game right away. The lawyers just won’t allow it.
Now that I think of it, in crafting this clever pitch the only thing the fans have done is ensure that a game like this cannot ever be made. Activision won’t be able to accept the pitch for liability reasons, and now that it’s become popular the company won’t dare touch the subject matter for fear that it might be sued into oblivion by the people who created the idea originally.
Man, IP law is depressing, huh?
Source: Police Warfare
