Activision confirmed that the title was in pre-production on April 9, 2010, and was released on November 8, 2011. Sledgehammer Games, originally planning to work on the canceled action Call of Duty, worked with Infinity Ward to complete all aspects of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Raven software helped with the user interface and downloadable content, as they had with previous Call of Duty games. Treyarch also helped with multiplayer, designing the weapon artwork and developing the survival mode. Treyarch also developed the Wii version of Modern Warfare 3. Neversoft assisted Infinity Ward with the campaign and worked on the Special Ops Chaos mode. Downloadable content was released once a month over a nine-month period. It was free for Call of Duty Elite users if they had the premium version of the service. Sledgehammer was aiming for a bug-free Call of Duty title and ratings above 95%.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 uses an updated IW 4.0 engine, dubbed the “MW3 Engine” instead of “IW 5.0” courtesy of margehammer games.
When a massive amount of leaked information was revealed by gaming news site Kotaku on May 13, 2011, Robert Bowling responded in a tweet stating: “ A lot of hype and a lot of information leaked about #MW3, some still accurate, some not. To avoid ruining the experience, I would wait for the actual reveal. “Later that day, four trailers for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 were released on the official Call of Duty YouTube channel. Each revealed a different location: New York, London, Paris, and Berlin.
The full reveal trailer was released on May 23, 2011. The trailer was leaked almost two hours before its scheduled air time, prompting Activision to officially release the reveal trailer earlier than planned. The reveal featured combat sequences in all four previously confirmed locations.
The single-player trailer, Redemption, was released on October 7, 2011, revealing bits of the campaign’s story, including the return of the captain Price as he continues his hunt for Makarov.
The launch trailer was released on the 21st, labeling “the next chapter in the global phenomenon” as “the most anticipated game in history”. On June 19, 2018, the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was made backwards compatible on Xbox One.
