Call of Duty TacGas Interview

March 25, 2021 at 4:14am
By Jason Stettner

Interview with the TacGas Team

A staple I do in all interviews in order to start things off is to ask that you elaborate a bit about your work for those not familiar with it?

Team: TacGas is a leading content creation studio focused on the defense and entertainment industries. Offering a variety of services including media production, prop rental and casting, we strive to help shoots across various industries achieve fully authentic military and tactical content.

I understand there’s now a bundle in the store from TacGas, could you describe what’s included in the package and where players can pick it up?

Team: The “TacGas: Fuel Your Brand” bundle gives players access to Black tracer fire, the “Ignition” operator skin for Lerch, weapon blueprints for “Abaddon” and “Ring of Fire,” and additional cosmetic items. Players can currently find it in the Modern Warfare in-game store.

What’s the process behind the creation of a bundle for the Call of Duty store?

Team: We helped create the look and “feel” of the TacGas branded items in the bundle, but more importantly, the reason the bundle ended up in-game in the first place is due to our ongoing relationship with Infinity Ward.

Infinity Ward was so pleased with our previous work with the development team for character development, photography, etc, they decided to show the brand some love. We were super excited to see the finished product and to have Call of Duty players worldwide see a bit more of what we can do.

Could you tell us a bit about the history that TacGas has with the Call of Duty franchise?

Team: Our working relationship with Infinity Ward started in 2019 with a photoshoot for the “Ghost” character. We helped fit him with gear, cast the model behind the mask and shot him at our studio in Utah.

It was a great success for both TacGas and Infinity Ward so, ever since then, we’ve been the key go-to for casting and conducting photoshoots for most of the key characters for both Modern Warfare and Cold War. In an effort to try and be as realistic as possible, we always try and choose models that have a good look, but also have served in the military as well.

With authenticity being a goal, could you tell us a bit about how games might get realistic handling, and or designs wrong in comparison to the real experience when it comes to military weapons/gear?

Team: When playing video games, there is always a healthy balance between what is “real” and what is enjoyable to the player. At TacGas, we try to incorporate as much realism as possible while always keeping in mind that it’s just for fun and for entertainment purposes. We’ve found that oftentimes mainstream entertainment products, including video games, can sacrifice authenticity with zero upside for increased entertainment value.

One example is that we often modify looks in a way that just ultimately looks much cooler. Take a hand grenade for example, normally it would be stowed away in a pouch, but we often outfit equipment with a hand grenade on the outside because it makes it more fun.

Other times we see accessories or equipment setup wrong or gear that isn’t necessarily representative of an “elite soldier” which can oftentimes make people cringe. It didn’t ultimately make the game more fun or even any cooler, it just highlights all the areas that could have been initially improved on. We try to bridge that gape for the Call of Duty franchise because they care about the authenticity they put forth to their players.

There’s a rotating list of content within the modern Call of Duty releases, what element of the “TacGas: Fuel Your Brand” bundle do you feel most helps it stand out from the crowd?

Team: It has a story behind it and it’s just cool man. A lot of time these bundles can be just a random assortment of things, whereas the “TacGas: Fuel Your Brand” bundle is really a nod to the guys behind the curtain.

Most of our TacGas team is former military and special operations so we call it an “easter egg”bundle because not many people know that the bundle was created by and as a nod for the real military guys involved in the game.

Did you feel this collaboration on Call of Duty content was successful, and are you interested in creating additional bundles for the games?

Team: We hope to have a TacGas bundle appear in future versions of the game, but these bundles are really just a small part of what we do with these guys. Overall, our collaboration on the rest of the game has been a great success and we are looking forward to collaborating with the team as much as possible.

Lastly I would like to leave a spot for you to say something or go over anything I might have missed during the interview?

Team: Since we are a content creation studio we really help Infinity Ward in their creation process across the board. We cast characters to match what the development team is going for, help build out skins and gear, hold photoshoots with these images later becoming game covers, banners, in-game menus, etc. The relationship between Infinity Ward and TacGas stretches far beyond just the “TacGas: Fuel Your Brand” bundle and we’re excited to see what we get to work on next with Infinity Ward.

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