Ex-Call of Duty devs almost made a new zombies game but we'll likely never see it

After over a decade of Zombies maps having been littered throughout the Call of Duty franchise, fans of the game mode have long been calling for a standalone title where we can take the undead slaughtering to new levels.

But aside from the Chronicles DLC, and a proposed upcoming sequel in 2025 (maybe), Activision has been reluctant to combine the Zombies maps into one medley.

But that doesn't mean another publisher wouldn't and ex-Call of Duty developers Lee Ross and Jason Blundell "almost" did so, presumably under the Sony banner.

Ex-Zombies dev claims a standalone game was under development outside of Call of Duty

Click to enlarge

Jason Blundell and Lee Ross are legends of Call of Duty Zombies. Blundell was among the founders of the undead game mode for Treyarch, developing classic maps like Der Reise and Mob of the Dead, and being the mind behind the pack-a-punch machine and teleporters. Ross, on the other hand, was over at Infinity Ward and was a key part of the Infinite Warfare Zombies and Extinction modes.

The pair both left Activision back in 2020 as Blundell started Deviation Games, under Sony's wing, with other ex-CoD devs, where they were working on an unnamed project until 2023. Ross left to join Sumo Digital and later Highwire Games.

Now though, after Deviation Games was officially shut down by Sony, Ross has shed some light on what the unnamed IP that Blundell could have been working on, or another Activision project that would have been formed outside of the Call of Duty universe.

Taking to Twitter, Ross revealed that he and Blundell were once "kinda/sorta" set to release "a standalone Zombies game not attached to CoD".

What would a non-Call of Duty Zombies game be like?

The former IW, Neversoft, and Treyarch developer dropped the nugget on social media on March 10 and avoided any elaboration as to when this project was going on, whether it was during Deviation's stint after 2020, or earlier under Activision's wing.

The undisclosed project would have had to be made from scratch, with all new maps rather than anything used from Call of Duty. However, like-minded features would have likely been included, such as some form of random weapon generator, upgrade machines, and the typically Treyarch round-based system.

Unfortunately, the project appears to have been canned and left as a distant memory, with Activision still looking to recapture Zombies' essence one way or another.