11 Fascinating Gaming Moments That Almost Happened
9. Call Of Duty Zombies Was Nearly Cancelled Because It Was A "Disgrace"
Activision
Though they started out on the back foot, only given just over a year to phone in Call of Duty 3, through sheer perseverance and talent, Treyarch managed to become the main driving force behind Activision's premier shooter franchise. Their earliest major contribution to the series was the coveted Nazi Zombies mode from World at War, a multiplayer game type that's since become a staple of almost every single release, and spawned an entire community who only play the games for this one reason. Weird, I know.
As you can probably have guessed though, Activision - a company notorious for playing it as safe as possible and not taking any creative risks out of fear of losing even a penny - initially weren't keen on the idea. Working on the prototype of the mode in their spare time, the developers were eventually told to stop wasting energy on the side project and get to work on shipping the actual game.
The higher ups didn't just dislike the concept though, they actively hated it. One apparently even referred to it as a "disgrace to the franchise." The devs got the last laugh, of course, as the game shipped with the mode included as a small easter egg, which then transformed into one of the series' core pillars.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
Josh has over 11 years of experience as a published writer, having worked nine of those years as a full-time content producer at WhatCulture. In that period he has created hundreds of articles, videos and podcast episodes for multiple WhatCulture channels, specialising in gaming, horror and film & TV. He now primarily works as a senior content producer and presenter on WhatCulture Gaming where he co-hosts the WhatCulture Gaming Podcast, a top 3 UK most listened to gaming podcast that he co-created in 2018. Over the years he has reviewed several high-profile gaming releases, covered industry events with on-site reporting, opined on breaking news, and even kicked off his interviewing career by chatting to childhood hero, Tommy Wiseau.
