Activision struck gold in 2007 with the first Modern Warfare and was willing to dig deep into their massive pockets to ensure that the sequel lived up to the hype. Infinity Ward, on the other hand, wasn’t willing to get caught up with the lofty expectations. Their first order of business was to decline Activision’s exorbitant budget for Modern Warfare 2.

Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling told Develop Online about just how far Activision was willing to go to guarantee Modern Warfare 2’s success. “Early on – when we decided to make a sequel – Activision estimated out a ridiculous budget. And we were like: ‘No, we don’t need that’,” said Bowling.

Although he didn’t translate the ridiculous budget into concrete numbers, Bowling’s comments suggested the hype Activision were expecting for Modern Warfare 2. It’s a sentiment that Infinity Ward didn’t share. “Much like we don’t let ourselves get distracted by hype, if you have excess you feel like you should use excess,” Bowling continued. “So we said ‘let us design a game the way we’d always design a game. And let us focus on that.’ So we didn’t let the budget affect our mentality. We would only put stuff in the game that is right for the game, and not because we can.”