Roger's Blog

From my first days at Activision, I was a regular at the company’s “Greenlight” meetings, where upcoming games were reviewed, debated, and—if they made the cut—given the go-ahead. My role? Representing the “European perspective.”

In a pre-Zoom era, this meant long, late-night video conferences from the UK office to Santa Monica every Thursday from 4:30 p.m. until… well, whenever they ended—sometimes past midnight. But on an unremarkable day in 2001, I happened to be in the Santa Monica office in person, which meant I’d be attending Greenlight live. That day would turn out to be one of the most memorable of my career.

A Glimpse into Greatness

On my way to the meeting, a producer spotted me, recognized me, and practically dragged me over to his desk. Developers were always eager to get people like me excited about their games—we were the gatekeepers to international markets. If we believed in a title, we’d push for more marketing, more budget, more visibility.

He sat me down, fired up his desktop PC, and started playing an unfinished level of a World War II shooter—still over a year from release. Even in that raw state, I could feel it. The game had something special.

It was cinematic. Authentic. Emotional.

When your squadmates were shot, you felt it. The sound design was immersive, with chaos erupting beyond what was on screen—bullets whizzing, explosions in the distance, distant voices barking orders. It felt like a real warzone. But what struck me most was that it didn’t feel like a game I was playing; it felt like a war movie I was in.

The game didn’t even have a name yet, but it would soon be known as Call of Duty—the first of its kind from a little-known studio called Infinity Ward.

Backing a Winner

At the time, there was no guarantee it would become a hit. It was PC-only (hard to imagine now, right?), and console shooters hadn’t fully taken hold. But I knew this was something different. Something game-changing—yes, I used that pun a lot back then to grab attention.

I championed it hard, doubling down on marketing. It became the first PC game in Europe to receive a dedicated TV ad campaign from Activision. And when it launched, it delivered—winning Game of the Year at the BAFTAs, even beating GTA 3.

We had backed a winner.

A Legacy That Lasts

Call of Duty is now one of the biggest franchises in gaming history—an absolute juggernaut. But back then? It was just another untested concept fighting for attention in a crowded market.

I like to think that the work we did—pushing, marketing, evangelizing—helped set the stage for what was to come. It’s rare to be able to say you were there at the birth of a mega-franchise. And while I never coded a single line or created a single pixel, I’m proud to have played a small part in shaping a legacy that still dominates the industry today.

Daleep Chabbria, Ian Howe, Scott Dodkins, Kathy Vrabeck, Dusty Welch, Nathalie Ranson, Jackie Sutton, Heather Clarke, Thaine Lyman, Ron Doornink, Larry Goldberg, Ryh-ming Poon, Bernard Sizey, Stefan Luludes, Maryanne Lataif, Laird Malamed, Rich Brest, David Pokress, Denise Walsh, Tim Ponting, Bill Anker, Matthew Pierce, James Binns