E3 2017: Call Of Duty: WW2 Aspires To Be Saving Private Ryan Of Modern Video Games

Call of Duty: WWII is bringing the series back to World War II for the first time in a decade, and developer Sledgehammer Games has said that it's focused on making it a faithful and respectful representation of the conflict. In pursuit of this goal, Sledgehammer is drawing a lot of inspiration from other media, including Saving Private Ryan. But more than that, Call of Duty actually aspires to fill the same role as that film as a cultural touchstone for a generation.

Saving Private Ryan came out in 1998 and is one of the most famous war films ever made; it's largely considered a brutally realistic, and very accurate, depiction of war, and it acted as an inspiration for countless more war films in the years after its release. Speaking on GameSpot's stage show, Sledgehammer studio head Michael Condrey stressed that the team did a lot of its own research, but that the game has certainly been influenced by the film and other media about World War II.

"For us, giving the chance to give a new generation, maybe generations who've never seen Saving Private Ryan or maybe Band of Brothers, which was ten years ago, or played Call of Duty that hasn't been [to WWII] in nearly a decade, this might be their first exposure. So we wanted to capture that, in our own way."

When asked if Sledgehammer wants Call of Duty: WWII to be "the Saving Private Ryan of the current gaming generation," Condrey replied without hesitation. "Absolutely, absolutely," he said.

"For people who are coming back, like you and me who've played Call of Duty from the beginning, we want this to feel really powerful and new. And for people who are playing it for the first time, we hope that that's an experience that they'll look to now as their pop culture, iconic experience of World War II."

Condrey spoke a lot more about the game on our stage show, and we'll be bringing you more news from it today. In addition, Activision recently announced that its multiplayer beta begins in August. Finally, check out Call of Duty's multiplayer reveal trailer here.

Keep an eye on GameSpot the rest of this week for more news, impressions, and videos coming out of E3 2017. The week's not over yet, and we'll have a lot more on all the big games at the show.