Michael Condrey | |
|---|---|
 Condrey at the October 2012 Korea Games Conference | |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Video game director, producer |
| Known for | |
| Title | President of 31st Union |
Michael Condrey is the co-founder and former studio head of Sledgehammer Games, which he founded with Glen Schofield after their collaboration on the popular video game franchise Dead Space . He is now the president of 31st Union, a 2K studio located in Silicon Valley, California. [1] [2]
Condrey graduated in 1997 from the University of Washington. The following year, his senior thesis on applying biotechnology to conservation biology was published in the Molecular Ecology . After working as a scuba diving instructor and boat captain in the Cayman Islands, he began work on a graduate degree in Seattle. It was there that he launched his game development career, beginning with a summer job at Electronic Arts (EA) during the peak of Seattle's gaming explosion. Condrey later relocated to Redwood City at the EA-owned studio Visceral Games, where he became studio chief operations officer, as well as senior development director on the 2008 title Dead Space. He also worked on three other successful EA franchises: Need for Speed , FIFA and the James Bond game series. [2] [3]
In November 2009, Condrey and his Visceral Games colleague Glen Schofield founded Sledgehammer Games, a subsidiary of Activision operating under the company's independent studio model. [4] Condrey likened the opportunity to work with Activision and Call of Duty to a baseball player having a call from the New York Yankees or a filmmaker hearing from Steven Spielberg [3] After an initial attempt to create their own Call of Duty title, Condrey and Schofield collaborated with Infinity Ward on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 . The game grossed $1 billion in worldwide sales in its first 16 days [5] and took the Best Shooter prize at the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards. [6] The following year, the game was named Game Design of the Year at the Korea Games Conference and won the Global Award from Japan Game Awards 2012 at the Tokyo Game Show. [7]
Condrey and Schofield left their roles at Sledgehammer in February 2018, taking up executive positions within Activision. [8] Condrey subsequently left Activision in December 2018 to help establish a new, 2K Games studio under Take Two Interactive near San Francisco in January 2019. [9] The studio name was announced in February 2020 as 31st Union, along with announcing a second location to open in Spain. [10]
| Game | Year | Publisher | Credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit | 1998 | Electronic Arts | Tester |
| FIFA 99 | Producer | ||
| Deer Hunt Challenge | 1999 | ||
| Ultimate Hunt Challenge | 2000 | ||
| Champion Bass | |||
| The World is Not Enough | Producer | ||
| James Bond 007: Nightfire | 2002 | ||
| James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing | 2004 | Director | |
| From Russia with Love | 2005 | ||
| Dead Space | 2008 | ||
| Dead Space: Extraction | 2009 | special thanks | |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops | 2010 | Activision | |
| Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 | 2011 | Director | |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops II | 2012 | special thanks | |
| Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare | 2014 | Director | |
| Call of Duty: WWII | 2017 |
Condrey has expressed concerns about the industry's focus on the top five blockbuster video game titles, noting that, in 2012, "there are probably 10 games that should qualify" at that tier, leaving the middle space below as a kind of game purgatory. The result, he said, has created more innovation for other platforms, genres and business models, including Apple's iOS operating system, freemium business models and social-network games. "Across the industry," Condrey said in a GamesIndustry International interview, "it's as exciting as I've ever seen it in terms of innovation and trying new things out." [5]
Condrey has also discussed the role of microtransactions in video games. In 2019, following his departure from Activision, Condrey criticized Activision's implementation of microtranscations, saying Advanced Warfare "launched only with rewarded Supply Drops." and that the team "were driven by, and at the service of, providing fans more ways" to "express achievements", further saying "$30 for a melee weapon? Not on my watch." [11] [12]
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016.
Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993.
Infinity Ward, Inc. is an American video game developer. They developed the video game Call of Duty, along with seven other installments in the Call of Duty series. Vince Zampella, Grant Collier, and Jason West established Infinity Ward in 2002 after working at 2015, Inc. previously. All of the 22 original team members of Infinity Ward came from the team that had worked on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault while at 2015, Inc. Activision helped fund Infinity Ward in its early days, buying up 30 percent of the company, before eventually fully acquiring them. The studio's first game, World War II shooter Call of Duty, was released on the PC in 2003. The day after the game was released, Activision bought the rest of Infinity Ward, signing employees to long-term contracts. Infinity Ward went on to make Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, the Modern Warfare reboot, and its sequel.
Neversoft Entertainment, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Woodland Hills, California. The studio was founded by Joel Jewett, Mick West and Chris Ward in July 1994 and was acquired by Activision in October 1999. Initially, the studio worked with Playmates Toys, where they worked on the game Skeleton Warriors, which was based on a animated television series of the same name. Throughout 1996, the studio grew, and worked on projects with Crystal Dynamics and Sony Computer Entertainment, but due to internal conflicts, they were cancelled.
Treyarch Corporation is an American video game developer based in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1996 by Peter Akemann and Doğan Köslü, it was acquired by Activision in 2001. The studio is known for its work for the Call of Duty series, which it develops alongside Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software.
Call of Duty(COD) is a video game series and media franchise published by Activision, starting in 2003. The games were first developed by Infinity Ward, then by Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games. Several spin-off and handheld games were made by other developers. The most recent title, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, was released on November 10, 2023.
Activision Blizzard, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in Santa Monica, California. Activision Blizzard currently includes five business units: Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, King, Major League Gaming, and Activision Blizzard Studios.
Glen Schofield is an American video game artist, designer, director, and producer. He was formerly the vice president and general manager at Visceral Games, co-founder of Sledgehammer Games, founder and former CEO of Striking Distance Studios, and the creator and executive producer of the third-person survival horror video game Dead Space.
Visceral Games, previously EA Redwood Shores, was an American video game developer studio owned by Electronic Arts. The studio is best known for creating and principally developing the Dead Space series.
Sledgehammer Games, Inc. is an American video game developer company formed in 2009 by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey. The pair formerly worked at Visceral Games and are responsible for the creation of Dead Space. The company is based in Foster City, California. The studio has developed or co-developed various video games in the Call of Duty series.
Respawn Entertainment, LLC is an American video game development studio founded in 2010 by Jason West and Vince Zampella and owned by Electronic Arts since 2017. West and Zampella previously co-founded Infinity Ward and created the Call of Duty franchise, where they were responsible for its development until 2010.
The IW engine is a game engine created and developed by Infinity Ward for the Call of Duty series. The engine was originally based on id Tech 3. Aside from Infinity Ward, the engine is also used by other Activision studios working on the series, including primary lead developers Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games, and support studios like Beenox, High Moon Studios, and Raven Software.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is a 2011 first-person shooter video game, jointly developed by Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision. The game was released worldwide in November 2011 for Microsoft Windows, the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and OS X. It is the sequel to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009), serving as the third and final installment in the original Modern Warfare trilogy and the eighth Call of Duty installment overall. A separate version for the Nintendo DS was developed by n-Space, while Treyarch developed the game's Wii port. In Japan, Square Enix published the game with a separate subtitled and dubbed version.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is a 2014 first-person shooter video game published by Activision. The eleventh major installment in the Call of Duty series, the game was developed by Sledgehammer Games for PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One, while High Moon Studios developed the versions released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and Raven Software developed the game's multiplayer and the Exo-Zombies mode.
2015, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The studio is best known for developing Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.
Call of Duty: WWII is a 2017 first-person shooter game developed by Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision. It was released worldwide on November 3, 2017 for PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One. It is the fourteenth main installment in the Call of Duty series and the first title in the series to be set primarily during World War II since Call of Duty: World at War in 2008.
31st Union is a video game development studio of 2K based in San Mateo, California, with a studio in Valencia, Spain. It was founded in February 2019, then provisionally named 2K Silicon Valley, with Sledgehammer Games co-founder Michael Condrey as its lead.
The Call of Duty Endowment (C.O.D.E.) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation co-created by Bobby Kotick, CEO of gaming company Activision Blizzard, and General James L. Jones, Jr., a retired United States Marine Corps four-star general, to help U.S., and later, U.K. military veterans find high-quality careers. The Endowment funds non-profit organizations that help former service members transition to high quality civilian careers after their military service and raises awareness of the value veterans bring to the workplace. The name of the Endowment is a reference to the video game series Call of Duty.
Call of Duty: Vanguard is a 2021 first-person shooter game developed by Sledgehammer Games and published by Activision. It was released on November 5 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. It serves as the 18th installment in the overall Call of Duty series. Vanguard establishes a storyline featuring the birth of the special forces to face an emerging threat at the end of the war during various theatres of World War II.