Infinity Ward co-founder Chance Glasco has revealed during in a post on social media that Activision has put pressure on the developer to make a game that depicted Israel being invaded by Iran.
Glasco’s comments came in wake of footage of Call of Duty being used in a video released by the official X account for the White House, which showed a Kill Streak being called in followed by a montage of real-world military bombing footage was displayed. Point indicators are also shown in the footage when explosions happen, which echoes Call of Duty kill streaks.
This doesn’t surprise me. I remember after Activision took over post-Respawn formation there was a very awkward pressure from Activision for us to make the next CoD about Iran attacking Israel. Luckily the vast majority of our devs were disgusted by the idea and it got shot down.
“A lot of us devs were appalled because it felt like political propaganda being pushed by Activision,” he added in further response to the video on X. He then further explained his stance when asked why an invasion of Israel by Iran would be deemed political propaganda, whereas fictional depictions of other countries such as the UK and Mexico were not deemed as such.
My point is that the government would happily use entertainment, including video games, as a way to sway public opinion on major issues. There have been decades of pressure for a war with Iran across multiple administrations. The scenarios you mentioned, not so much. My entire time at Infinity Ward (CoD1 through CoD:Ghosts) none of our story choices were motivated by the desire to create any type of propaganda to promote any conflicts.
Glasco reflected on his time with the Call of Duty series during an interview with News 9 back in May 2025, where he compared it to The Simpsons in the sense it’s been around for a long time and sometimes feels like it’s ran out of idea.s Having said that, he admitted he’s till enjoys playing Call of Duty Warzone, and said he feels Call of Duty Modern Warfare II was “probably the best game we made.”
[Source – Chance Glasco on X via Eurogamer]