Russell Adler is a CIA operative who hunts after Perseus.

Call of Duty: Black Ops — Cold War called for technical wizardry from Treyarch

Call of Duty: Black Ops — Cold War is the work of a lot of game studios at Activision Blizzard, but the tech behind the game was largely crafted by the team at Treyarch, while Raven Software created the story and single-player campaign.

The work was made harder because the game had a late start, thanks to an early difference of opinion between Raven and Activision’s Sledgehammer Games studio. But Raven and Treyarch saw eye-to-eye, and they teamed up on Cold War and worked furiously to get the game done.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.