A Legacy Bigger Than Warzone
Call of Duty didn’t make Raven Software—it just kept it alive. Long before loadout tuning and mid-season patches, the studio built strange, striking shooters and some of the best licensed action RPGs on consoles.
Co-founder Brian Raffel is retiring 36 years after starting the studio, a milestone that naturally puts Raven’s full body of work back in view. The company is now a key pillar in the Activision machine supporting Warzone and yearly COD releases, but its résumé runs much deeper than battle royale metas and camo grinds.
“In 1990, inspired by a shared love of storytelling, Brian and his brother Steve set out to build something of their own,” the studio posted on X on April 2. “What began as a small creative pursuit known as Black Crypt grew into something far, far greater. Over the years, his leadership guided our studio through a wild and shifting industry, shaping it into what it is today. From dark, otherworldly realms to places that reached far across galaxies, Brian has crafted stories that have left a lasting mark on players around the world.”
The studio’s announcement also points players to a refreshed history page that lays out every game Raven has touched. It’s a reminder that the name once meant experimental fantasy shooters and crunchy action RPGs as much as killstreaks.
From Black Crypt To Hexen: A Studio Finds Its Voice
Raven was born on PC in 1990 with Black Crypt, a first-person fantasy dungeon crawler that foreshadowed the team’s knack for moody art and mechanical tinkering. Then came Heretic, Hexen: Beyond Heretic, and Hexen II, a run that etched the studio into ‘90s shooter history. Doom designer John Romero served as producer on the first two, and that collaboration helped Raven inject arcane weapons and labyrinthine level design into a genre otherwise defined by speed and shotguns.