Infinity Ward, developer of the hit Modern Warfare franchise, has a rather strange relationship with publisher Activision. The latter originally wanted nothing to do with such a concept, and despite it turning into a huge success for both companies, Infinity Ward still kept Activision in the dark when they began working on the sequel.

"We know the game we want to make," Infinity Ward Community Manager Robert Bowling explained to Official Xbox Magazine, "and especially with Modern Warfare 2, we didn't even show Activision the game until very much later in the development process. Because we want to stay focused, really the only opinion we care about is what our fans think."

During the discussion, he also reaffirmed some comments made to MCV (via Edge) about using social networking to connect with their fans.

"We know everything there is to know about Modern Warfare 2," Bowling told MCV. "Not only do we know the game but we know the gamer. We know what to expect from them and what they expect from us. So it helps us guide design decisions and decisions overall, including with PR."

"I think it is essential for developers to have that power. I don't think any developer should not have control of how their game is presented or marketed or communicated. And they should take control of that a lot, lot more. It is why I started the Twitter account in the first place."

To OXM, he adds "that's why very early on, we got in touch with our fans via Twitter and Facebook and said 'what's the one thing you wanted to see in the game?'"

"So we got all that feedback and later on we asked a few more questions, and as we're designing, we have all these boards in the office that we can gut check ourselves and say, 'this is what they'd like to see, this is what we have planned and this is what we already have, and let's try to get those more in synch.'"

"That's really what's important," he concludes, "our relationship with us and our fans, and not so much us and Activision, or us and retailers or anything like that."