One of the founders of Infinity Ward revealed a surprising fact about the history of the Call of Duty franchise.

The White House Twitter account posted a video promoting attacks on Iran featuring footage and user interface elements from Microsoft and Activision Blizzard‘s popular shooter franchise, Call of Duty. Last weekend, the United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran, which, according to the latest reports, has claimed 1,230 lives so far.

In response to the video, which began with Call of Duty footage and continued with actual footage of the attacks, Chance Glasco — one of Infinity Ward‘s founders and a Call of Duty developer — said the video came as no surprise, as he was involved with the franchise when Activision took direct control after Respawn’s co-founders, Vince Zampella and Jason West, left. When users asked Glasco about infamous moments in Call of Duty history, such as the original Modern Warfare 2 “No Russian” level, he pointed out that the original Infinity Ward team consistently emphasized that war is hell, not just a video game.

No Russian was initially just a plot point/text on a loading screen in-between levels. My roommate and one of our designers thought it was weird that we just brushed over an entirely f’d up major plot point and treated it like it was nothing.

With Early CoDs we wanted to often…

— Chance Glasco (@ChanceGlasco) March 5, 2026

“This doesn’t surprise me. I remember after Activision took over post-Respawn formation, there was pressure from Activision for us to make the next Call of Duty about Iran attacking Israel. Luckily, most of our developers were disgusted by the idea, and it was rejected. The government would happily use entertainment, including video games, as a way to sway public opinion on major issues. There has been decades of pressure for a war with Iran across multiple administrations. ‘No Russian’ was initially just text on a loading screen between levels. My roommate and one of our designers thought it was strange that we glossed over such a major plot point and treated it as if it were insignificant. With the early Call of Duty games, we often wanted to remind people that war is hell, not just a video game. If you play the earlier Infinity Ward games, you’ll see that theme throughout the series. We wanted players to feel disgust, so we made them feel bad about war on purpose. We focus tested the level before release, and a high percentage of players froze when they realized what they were supposed to do. Some put down their controllers and said they didn’t want to play it. To me, this is a much better reaction than 100% of players going ‘Leroy Jenkins’ on the level with no emotion. Because of these reactions, we added an option to skip the level because it was so disturbing. Many people didn’t realize this, but you could complete the entire level without shooting a single civilian. You had to shoot near the civilians so that the Russian separatists would think you were shooting them. I was supposed to travel to Moscow to promote the game’s release, but the level was leaked, and Russia revoked my passport. I still don’t know if I’m allowed to travel there,” Glasco wrote.

We don’t even want to think about what would have happened if the plan hadn’t been scrapped.

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. https://t.co/taTIsQUklI

— Chance Glasco (@ChanceGlasco) March 4, 2026

Source: WCCFTech