Treyarch is a video game developer company located in Santa Monica, California. Treyarch is one of the primary studios working on the Call of Duty franchise.
History[]
Treyarch was founded by Peter Akemann and Don Likeness in 1996[2] and acquired by Activision in 2001. The studio wasn't originally dedicated to the Call of Duty franchise when it developed with Gray Matter Interactive Studios Call of Duty 2: Big Red One released in 2005. Treyarch and Gray Matter then merged together and the studio released Call of Duty 3 the next year, in 2006. Both Big Red One and Call of Duty 3 used an in-house engine called Treyarch NGL based on the Id Tech 3 engine used in the first Call of Duty.
In 2008, Treyarch released Call of Duty: World at War using the IW engine from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It was the first Call of Duty game by Treyarch released on PC. After World at War, Treyarch was entirely dedicated to the Call of Duty franchise and became the second primary studio, alternating with Infinity Ward.
In 2010, Treyarch released Call of Duty: Black Ops set during the 1960s. The game was a success, earning $360 million on its launch day and $650 million within its first five days of release, surpassing records held by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. After a month and a half, Black Ops crossed $1 billion worldwide. A year later, Treyarch assisted Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, they also ported the Wii version of the game. In 2012, Treyarch released Call of Duty: Black Ops II set place in the near-future in 2025, with some parts of the campaign set in the late 1980s. The game was very successful and broke several records held by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, grossing over $500 million on its launch day and became the fastest-grossing entertainement product to reach $1 billion in 15 days. Both records were later broken by Grand Theft Auto V in 2013.
In 2014, Dave Anthony, the Game Director for Black Ops and Black Ops II campaigns, left Treyarch. The same year, Jimmy Zielinski, Creative and Design Director for the Zombies mode since Black Ops, left the company. Both were replaced by Jason Blundell.
Treyarch released Call of Duty: Black Ops III in 2015, which set place in the far future in the 2060s and 2070s. The game grossed over $550 million within its first three days of release. Black Ops III became one of the best-selling games of the eighth generation of consoles. Treyarch also assited Infinity Ward during the developement of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare in 2016. The same year, Mark Lamia became Chairman of Treyarch while Dan Bunting, Jason Blundell and Mark Gordon became co-Studio Heads.
In 2018, Treyarch released Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 which featured the first Battle Royale mode for a main Call of Duty game, Blackout which replaced the traditional campaign mode. The game also featured a new Zombies storyline, the Chaos Story while finishing the Aether Story started in World at War. Black Ops 4 grossed over $500 million within its first three days of release.
On February 28th, 2020, Treyarch announced that Game Director and Co-Studio Head Jason Blundell stepped down and was leaving the studio.[3]
In November 2020, Treyarch released Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War alongside Raven Software which developed most of its campaign mode set during the early 1980s. The game also introduced a new Zombies storyline taking place after the Aether Story, called the Dark Aether Saga.
In 2021, Treyarch developed the Zombies mode for Sledgehammer Games' Call of Duty: Vanguard which served as a narrative prequel to the Dark Aether Saga introduced in Black Ops Cold War. Treyarch also developed the Ranked Play mode for Vanguard.
On November 16th, 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported that Dan Bunting stepped down and left Treyarch following allegations of misconduct and harrassment.[4]
In 2023, Treyarch developed the Ranked Play modes for both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0. Later that year, they developed the Zombie mode for Sledgehammer Games' Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, with the mode being called Operation Deadbolt, the first large-scale zombie mode sets in Zaravan, Urzikstan and takes place Dark Aether Saga, serving as a sequel taking place more than 35 years after the events in Forsaken.
In 2024, Treyarch released Ranked Play for Modern Warfare III. On April 30th, 2024, Xbox announced an Xbox Games Showcase for June 9th, 2024, which featured the keyart for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Treyarch's next game prior to its announcement.
Games developed for the Call of Duty series[]
Assisted in development[]
Ported games to different consoles[]
Employees[]
- Mark Lamia - Chairman
- Mark Gordon - Studio Head
- Craig Houston - Lead Writer
- Tony Bedard - Senior Writer
- Brian Tuey - Audio Director and Composer
- Scott Eckert - Sound Designer/Audio Engineer
- Kevin Sherwood - Sound Designer and Composer
- Neil Masiclat - Lighting Artist
- Adam Alcini - Graphics Engineer
- Kevin Drew - Associate Director of Design
- Miles Leslie - Associate Creative Director
- Carolyn Wang - Head of Brand Development
Former Employees[]
- Dan Bunting - Co-Studio Head
- Jason Blundell - Co-Studio Head, Game Director (Zombies, Campaign)
- David Vonderhaar - Studio Designer Director
- John Rafacz - Director of Communications and Social Media
- Jimmy Zielinski - Creative/Design Director, Zombies
- Jesse Synder - Designer, Creator of Zombies
- Reza Elghazi - Producer, Zombies
- Elena Siegman - Singer/additional voice
- Josh Olin - Community Manager
- Jason McCord - Designer
- Eric Pierce - Contracted TD
- Jeremy Luyties - Design Director
- Mike Denny - Designer
- Jeff Zaring - Designer
- Sean Slayback - Designer
- Zach Volker - Animator
- Gary Spinrad - Senior Sound Designer
- Jason Schoonover - Designer
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- Much like Infinity Ward, Treyarch makes references to their company name many times throughout their games, often with the word "3ARC", or "III ARC".
- An example includes a Computer Code in Call of Duty: Black Ops which is "3ARC UNLOCK", this unlocks the Zombies maps "Five" and "Dead Ops Arcade", but also disables the Stand Down achievement/trophy.
- Treyarch's logo is available as an Emblem in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, unlocked by getting a Final Killcam with a Stealth Bomber.
- Treyarch employees often use the clan tag "3arc" in the multiplayer modes of Call of Duty.
- All the bots in Black Ops series use "3arc" as their clan tag. As well as them all having the names of Treyarch employees.
- If someone tries to change their clan tag to "3arc" and they are not a Treyarch employee, it will not work.
External links[]
Sources[]
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