“You Should Start Tomorrow”: Call of Duty Modern Warfare III Composer Details His Rushed Schedule On The Blockbuster Game

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 aims to push the juggernaut Call of Duty franchise into the future even as it offers longtime players sustained bursts of nostalgia. Open Combat Missions offer sandbox-style gameplay for the first time in a Call of Duty game and the ever-popular Zombies mode debuts in Modern Warfare. In contrast, the game’s multiplayer suite is full of maps reimagined from the 2011 classic Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. All of this was reportedly put together in half the development time typically befitting a mainline Call of Duty game.

The short development time of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 ensured that everyone involved had to drill down to create what would potentially be the biggest of all November 2023 video game releases. This also applied to Call of Duty: Mobile composer Walter Mair, a longtime fan of the franchise who stepped into the mainline franchise for the first time with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Mair shared his surprise at the timeline he was given with Screen Rant during a recent interview:

Walter Mair: We did the last recording session in September. [So it was] from the initial pitch in January, up until September. There’s a few weeks after, of course, of mixing and stuff, but from a writing process, everything needed to be done by that time. That’s why I first thought, “I’m pitching for next year’s Call of Duty, surely.” After I won the pitch, we had the first big meeting [with] the execs, the game director, [the] music director… lots of screens on Zoom. Then, I talked about the timeline, and they’re like, “Yeah, you should start tomorrow.” I’m like, “Sure. Yeah. I can have a think.” I was clever enough at some point to say, “Guys, this is for which Call of Duty again?” [They were like] “It’s this year’s.” I was like, “Okay. I get it.”

How The Short Schedule Helped Modern Warfare 3’s Music

The annual nature of Call of Duty releases has come under criticism in more than one Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 campaign review, but Mair shared that the time crunch behind the franchise’s latest actually worked to his benefit. Although Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has its share of gripping themes, the unique soundscape of the game was designed to set the tone of the world whether or not a recognizable melody was being played. Mair had the following to say on finding a way to use his time that benefitted him creatively:

Walter Mair: In a way, I really liked that. I’d take the first few weeks just to be creative; to do all the nonsense, the weird stuff, [and] get it out of the system or create really cool sounds. I’ve got a synth rig here and other stuff. It’s like, “Do something creative, and then I can dive into writing melodies and themes,” which comes a bit later in the process. I used each section quite nicely from a time point of view. I wouldn’t want to write a melody from the beginning when I don’t know what the sound is for the game; I need a bit of time to find my feet.

Mair also stressed that his ability to deliver a top-notch score was thanks to the unwavering support he received from the studio. The massive Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 file size proves that Mair had to write plenty of music indeed, but the developers had faith in him to do the job right despite very real questions about whether or not the composer’s preferred approach was possible. Too much micromanagement could theoretically have hindered Mair’s work, but the composer shared the trusting relationship he had with the developers:

Walter Mair: “Walter, we need some melodies first, because what some previous Call of Dutys didn’t have was something that you can sing along [with]. Something you can hum along with; something that’s memorable, that sticks out.” I was asked to write that early on, and I’m like, “Yes, but could I do a recording session with my weirder patterns, textures, soundscape-y stuff, [and] ideas that I’ve put together?”

They were like, “Do we have enough time? Can we afford Walter the luxury,” not financially, but time-wise, “to actually do those recording sessions first, and then go into melodies?” I’m glad Dave, the game director, was one hundred percent behind my concept; the initial concept that I had pitched. He was like, “Hey. Let’s do it.”

Notably, Mair didn’t score Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s Zombies mode, instead focusing on the campaign and multiplayer sections. This was not necessarily a time-based decision, however; the Zombies mode in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 wasn’t developed by primary developer Sledgehammer Games, the studio with whom Mair was collaborating. Ultimately, thanks to the unique workflow structure the composer implemented to meet scheduling demands, Mair’s work has turned out to be a highlight of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.