One of the exciting parts about getting a new generation of consoles is that developers get to dazzle us with new gaming engines powering their games. One of the biggest gaming franchises on the planet, Call of Duty, has been running on the same Infinity Ward Engine (IW Engine) for years now. To put it in perspective, the IW Engine is basically a modified id Tech 3 engine, which first made an appearance in 1999’s Quake III Arena.
When Activision Publishing’s CEO Eric Hirshberg hopped on stage during the Xbox One reveal event, he showed off Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Ghosts for the first time. Much of his preamble leading to the reveal trailer was peppered with the phrase “entirely new”, including his mention of the game being “built on our new, next-gen Call of Duty engine”. This prompted speculation as to what the new engine was called and for how long it’s been in development.
Infinity Ward has since come forward to say that actually it’s not a new engine, but rather another modified iteration of the IW Engine. “When we’re talking about a new engine,” Infinity Ward’s animation lead Zach Volker said, “we’re talking about upgrading significant systems within that engine. We’re not talking about throwing it all away and saying we’re starting from the ground up.”
