By 2023, David Vonderhaar had one foot out of the door of game development. After a career spanning three decades, 18 years of which had been spent on Call of Duty giving shape to franchise icons like Black Ops, Zombies, and Warzone, he tells me he fully expected to retire out of Activision. "I was completely prepared. I have an RV outside my house, and my plan was to take that RV and take a year and drive around the country and be a nomad."
That RV is still sitting on the tarmac outside Vonderhaar's house with barely 6,000 miles on the clock. Before he could leave Call of Duty behind for good, he was approached by publishing giant NetEase. The opportunity promised was so unbelievable Vonderhaar says he spent months on the phone to industry peers who'd found themselves in a similar position, trying to work out if the chance to "do it my way" was too good to be true. Eventually, he departed the "monolithic" structure of Black Ops studio Treyarch in August 2023, unveiling his new studio, Bulletfarm Games, last month.
