Kotaku Splitscreen: The Human Story Behind Call Of Duty’s Zombie Mode
August 11, 2025 8:36 pm Game Development, Uncategorized
A long time ago I was lucky enough to be featured on the Kotaku Splitscreen Podcast and give a vocal version of how zombies ended up in Call of Duty. Maddy Myers and Jason Schreier were incredibly gracious hosts. They’re wonderful journalists that continue to do great things for the game industry. I was totally nervous but had a great time and feel fortunate to be able to have ended up on their podcast.
I’m amazed how popular “Zombie Mode” has become and how many hours people have been entertained by some of those big risks I took early in my career. I’m always grateful for folks who have spent their precious time enjoying it or tell me about their fond zombie memories. That’s why I make games. My goal is to entertain the world and make some of the most fun and memorable games and experiences ever created. I love playing games and want to give back by making them. Being able to achieve that by adding zombies to Call of Duty and pushing for it’s inclusion was no small feat and was it especially memorable to me how it all came to pass, as it was to the many other folks that helped make it happen along the way. It’s been interesting to see how zombies has evolved over time and has been included (or not) in each CoD release, but it seems to always stick around and remain popular. I remain very grateful on a creative and personal level that I could make it happen for everyone.
Feel free to give the podcast a listen directly from Spotify:
Or you can give it a listen to via Apple or Spotify here:
Since zombies came out, we’ve ended up in a world where misinformation is spread with ease. Part of writing that original blog post was a sense that it was already occurring and there would be people involved along the way that would attempt to tell a different story, either partially false or in some cases, completely made up for their own benefit. One day I hope to dig into more of this, especially some of the often repeated lies, like how how Zombies was mode was made by people “in little bits over their lunch time” which attempts to re-write the fact it was made entirely by me at first, in secret, for months, between midnight and 4 AM, including weekends while crunching as a lead on Call of Duty: World at War. WaW was woefully behind schedule and we were under immense pressure. My secret, primary motivation for the mode to exist was to save the project from what I perceived to be total failure and ensure Treyarch would be a studio that would be remembered for a long time. More on that another day, but crunch-life does some crazy things to human brains.
I think overall my intentions worked out. Treyarch is a super well known and world class studio I helped build and gave some wonderful, fresh and innovate IP to which has is now core to their identity which can’t be denied. I made my mark on the industry and I know what I created which no one could possibly take from me. At industry events I still bump into fellow devs that were at Treyarch at the time or contributed directly to zombies and tell me they still re-read that old blog post every year just as a reminder of how special that moment was. That’s mainly why I keep site up; notice I haven’t posted here regularly over well over a decade. They let me know that I told the story perfectly and also what new misinformation is being spread about it, but fortunately we’re all doing well in life and don’t concern ourselves with it… too much.