Modern Warfare II composer Sarah Schachner departs, cites difficult work dynamic

Musical composer Sarah Schachner has announced her departure from Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II. On Twitter, she wrote that she would no longer continue to write music for either the recently released shooter or the free-to-play spinoff, Call of Duty: Warzone. 

Following the October 28 release of Modern Warfare II, Schachner explained on Twitter that she had "no control" over the release of the game's soundtrack. Major Western video games typically time their soundtracks to release alongside the game, which made Modern Warfare II notable for not continuing the trend.

"I am sad to say I can no longer continue to compose music for Modern Warfare II and Warzone," wrote Schachner. "Over the past couple of months the working dynamic with the audio director has become increasingly challenging and I don’t see any path forward." 

Originally a film composer whose credits include 2022's Prey, Schachner has become well-known in games, having done music for BioWare's Anthem and various Ubisoft titles such as Assassin's Creed Unity. 

With Call of Duty, her tenure has been all Infinity Ward: she composed music for 2016's Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and the 2019 Modern Warfare reboot.

The unnamed audio director in question, per Variety, is believed to be Stephen Miller. Miller has been a longtime audio director at Infinity Ward, having first started as a sound designer during development of 2007's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and its sequels. In his IMDB page, he's listed as Modern Warfare II's audio director. 

In her statement, she further wrote that "what will be released on the soundtrack is not my artistic intent in regards to mixing and mastering. [...] We have soundtrack masters in hand from Mike which unfortunately you’ll never get to hear.”

"I hope you still enjoy it because I put so much work and effort into it," Scachner concluded. "I’m truly appreciative of the outreach so far and I feel a responsibility to the fans to remain authentic in my approach with the game and its sound which I have been a part of creating for many years."