Activision Cans Infinity Ward Studio Heads

" @Jackel2072 said:

"it just got real people! 
 
 http://kotaku.com/5484026/activisions-new-plans-for-call-of-duty-include-new-developer "

 Very, very real. Sounds abit like 343 Industries intiative, now with even less heart.  "

Well, they got a hit on their hands, now it's time to milk that sucker until the teats run red and then milk some more. This is bananas, people!

" it just got real people! 
 
 http://kotaku.com/5484026/activisions-new-plans-for-call-of-duty-include-new-developer "

IW needs to blow up for us to get some more bombcast? I can live with that :P

 According to the official statementwe've all been waiting for, Activision has announced that Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella are no longer with the studio. Activision Publishing chief technology officer Steve Pearce and head of production Steve Ackrich will head up the development house on "an interim basis." Furthermore, Call of Duty-related business will now be overseen by Philip Earl (now ex-head of Activision's Asia-Pacific region).

We first heard about a shakeup between Infinity Ward and Activision in the wee hours of this morning, and saw a few clues throughout the day regarding the two ex-IW heads, but this is certainly the clearest picture that's been painted of what has happened that we've seen as of yet. We've put in word to both the developer and the publisher to hear more about the future of the studio and what caused said schism. 

"

These are the same guys who walked out on EA and 2015, so apparently they are hard-to-work-with-assholes who want to stay independent.

"

Seriously, Activision are stupid. Very stupid. I might be done with the COD franchise after this.

Bill Harris' take is rather interesting. Definitely worth a read:
 
 http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/2010/03/strange-days-indeed.html

this is pretty nuts

" @buzz_killington said:

"

These are the same guys who walked out on EA and 2015, so apparently they are hard-to-work-with-assholes who want to stay independent.

"

Maybe so, but they have numerous game of the year awards to their credit. They get pissed at publishers who try and stifle their vision, and so far it seems, rightly so. They got pissed at EA, went on to make Call of Duty, one of the best reviewed PC shooters of all time, then against the "better judgment" of Activision made a modern shooter, and not just another WW2 game, which has gone on to become the best selling entertainment release of all time.  Anyway, here's Activisions press release:  http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=448656  Sounds like IW is stuck working on map packs for a while. Maybe that's why things were tense? They were itching to work on something new but were stuck in the loop hole of supporting MW2 forever ? Who knows. All I know is I don't think I'll be buying an Activision product again. This is getting to be too much. Their business practices are just fucking horrible.  "

 

  Activision essentially cut the head off of IW and placed their own members instead.  What is this? The medieval ages? "

oh man, this is intense...can't wait to hear GB's reaction in the bombcast

" @Hamz said:

" @Jackel2072: Rumour regarding MW3 was IW and Treyarch wouldn't be developing it and that Activision had decided to hand development to a third studio. I can imagine this, if true, would have caused extreme conflict between IW & Activision. Especially if it meant IW had to hand over code and assets of their work on the COD series to an unknown third studio to continue the series with. "

Ya, rumour has it that it would have been/will be Sledgehammer Games, the studio formed with former Dead Space devs. They've been quoted as saying they're working one a "future game for an exisiting Activision franchise" and a job listing of theirs lists requirements like: "5 years experience working on current AAA multiplayer shooters for current consoles and PC"  Sounds to me like Activision is pulling some not illegal but mean and nasty business practices, ie. "You signed a contract, now we own you, do what you're told or we fire you and then sue you." Technically Activision may be "in the right", but that don't make it right, if you know what I'm saying... "

Coming soon, Puzzle Quest: Call of Duty, and Call of Duty: the RPG! Also Call of Duty toilet paper.

"
Wow... 
That is news. 
 
"Insubordination"  could mean anything from embezelment to them not wanting to make another cod game.  
Need more info. "

I actually ashamed as a gamer that the branding of "Call of Duty" is now worth more to the company that holds its rights than the quality of the games they'll likely produce in the future, and more ashamed by the number of people who will continue to swarm to the series despite everything.

"Call of Duty is fucked.   COD Action Adventure? Really? Treyarch now being the main COD developer. ugh. "

From Gamasutra: 
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=27482
 
 "Another source with knowledge of the situation tells Gamasutra that although Infinity Ward is only about 75 developers strong, Activision brass demanded layoffs at the studio anticipating a refusal -- which they received, potentially opening the door for Activision to use that refusal as a way to launch a breach suit that would help it escape its contract."
 
So it's possible the "insubordination" was simply refusing to fire some of their own staff. And firing/suing these guys was a way of getting out of the "you can make another game before MW3" clause in their contract. It was these guys that signed that contract, not IW. It looks like Activision is free to force production on MW3 now if they want...
 
Ya, this doesn't reek of unethical at all... *rolls eyes*

Let's keep corporate corruption out of my video games, they don't go together well.

" Bill Harris' take is rather interesting. Definitely worth a read:   http://dubiousquality.blogspot.com/2010/03/strange-days-indeed.html "

Insubordination is bullshit for "we needed some way to get rid of him".

I have a strange feeling that a couple of guys partly responsible for 1 of the most profitable franchises in gaming history will be able to find a job somewhere.

" @Gorehorn: Sledgehammer Games will have an Action-Adventure CoD game due out by 2011.  Honestly wouldn't surprise me if they put out another big CoD that year too, though. "

Tim Schafer has a funny put up a funny post on his Twitter  "Getting mad at Activision for this kind of thing is like getting mad at an ape for throwing feces. It's just how the beast communicates." Also over on Kotaku they broke a story about Activision basically doing what they did to thee Guitar Hero franchise, get ready for an Action Adventure CoD people.
 
KOTICK!!!!

I'm excited to see what comes out of the hypothetical studio that will no doubt be made up of former IW employees when it is formed in a few months. Kind of reminds me of an event that happened to a certain website 2 years ago...

I actually just re-read their official statement and they already announce both games in it (sort of). They state that there will be another game as well as the Sledgehammer-created one (which I knew about), but they don't connect a developer to it. "

 @Gorehorn said:

"What gives you the impression Treyarch would be the main CoD developer? They will release a game this year, but that was to be expected as they alternated releases with IW for years now. I'm sure IW already started work on a 2011 release of CoD, Activision just won't announce it before the Treyarch game has had some time on shelves. "

An exact quote from Kotick:  "I wanted to take all the fun out of making videogames."
 
Well Congratulations Mr. Kotick! You've done what you set out to do you ass-hole. In terms of Infinity Ward studios at least.
 
Now I'm not a fanboy, but I do really hate that guy.

I mean this all just sounds like he's a victorious evil dictator that's shown up so he can make a self congratulatory speach in front of the very people who truly despise him for making these two guys quit in the first place, just so he can revel, like a power-hungry Sith Lord, in the fields of enveloping hatred all forceably pointing towards him. (Don't do it! Sith Lords just absorb it all and become more powerful because of it.)
Fake Quote from Kotick: "Omnipotent POWEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
 
Jokes aside, IW have being saying for many years now that they want to do something else aside and far away from anything even remotely related to the COD or MW series.
They wanted out. But like some controlling parents, Kotick probably(and would probably continue to say for reasons of money): "How about you do just one more and then we'll talk about letting your studio do something new afterwards."
 
Go West and Zampella! Make another studio and just wait for all IW employees to leave the embrace of the ever spoiling Activision and join the new studio. :-)
 
Man would I love to see Kotick get his!
 
What an ass-hole!

" It's sad to hear people are losing their jobs but frankly this sounds a lot like Zampella and West decided to refuse something Activision expected from them and now they're paying the price. My guess is Kotick will give the rest of IW an ultimatum of sorts, start accepting that Activision effectively owns them or hand in their resignation.  Personally it does seem like Activision is in the right here. A company like them, one that is both large and professional, wouldn't file an SEC report for breach of contract and insubordination from the two top dogs of a studio they own, let alone then sack them as well, without strong grounds to do so. Sounds to me like West and Zampella decided to revolt against something requested by Activision, perhaps in sharing code and/or other assets of the COD series with another studio for a future project. "

you know what best thing for them, they're now free to start there own company with probably the zillions in royalties they made from modern warfare (I don't actually know if they do get royalties i would assume so though considering they're the heads) activision is a shitty company to work for and i bet whoever grabs these two dudes will be like" you know what, do whatever the fuck you want just make us money" which is what these guys are good at...which makes you wonder why the fuck activision would do this.

anyone else so the irony in jeff saying he wonders if the full story will ever be reveiled?

My guess on this is basically Activision wanted IW to whore out the franchise with as many sequels and spin offs as possible.  The two boss-men were getting in the way, citing such things as creative integrity, the dev time vs quality ratio, and maintaining creative control over the franchise that they helped to create.  They probably also wanted to keep as much CoD development as they could in the hands of the IW devs to ensure that their franchise doesn't get raped by outside dev teams.
 
Basically they were getting in Activisions way.  With the bosses gone they can plant whatever puppet they want in control and farm out the franchise to 20 different dev teams so they can completely saturate the market with Call of Duty until there's nothing left but a dryed up husk that's been milked for all it's worth.  Then they'll fire every employee involved in CoD, hold a conference where they question whether or not they should have bought DICE instead, and move on to capturing, sucking dry, and discarding the next game dev ignorant enough to get involved.
 
The biggest problem is that the mass market isn't gonna really know any of this.  I can only hope the IW bosses get as much of their dev team as they can to quit Infinity Ward and go make another studio.  Reminds me of some website from a while back...

stay frosty while you're oscar mike, jason and vince.

I don't think we need a tacked on podcast segment about a game company's internal affairs we know very little about, do we?

" I don't think we need a tacked on podcast segment about a game company's internal affairs we know very little about, do we? "

" I think I speak for almost everyone when I say "Fuck Activision". "

You honestly would think that Activision would have learned their lesson with the "Hero" franchises.  But it looks like CoD is next up to be "Kotick'd".  
 
The guys at Blizzard have to be nervous as hell right now, 'cause they're probably next...

yea, great move activision. Fire the two guys behind the highest selling game...ever. Im pretty sure they could have done anything short of a hostile take over and i wouldnt have fired those guys.

I love what Tim 'God' Shaefer said. 
 
 "Getting mad at Activision for this kind of thing is like getting mad at an ape for throwing feces. It's just how the beast communicates."

Not wanting to blow Activision's horn but these are just shreds of facts and rumours. No need to start calling Activision the big evil empire yet. EA must be happy with that though.
 
I really don't think any company would file a SEC just because they don't want a daughter company to produce another game besides the main franchise. Refusal to lay off people is a bit more plausable. Still I feel that a lot more than that has to have happened.
 
Still a lot of "people" are going to react with a call to boycott all Activision products, regardless of the outcome. I do so hope that they realise this also includes Star Craft 2 and all other Blizzard games... 
 
Though unlikely, perhaps we will hear both sides or even the true story behind this all. If not everybody has signed their non-disclosure acts yet...

Without trying to sound like an old bastard about it, stories like these make me marvel at how far away from its roots the Activision brand has become. Where once there was an upstart company that split off from Atari to make sure programmer was king, we've got this kind of thing going on.
 
Of course, I say this without knowing what the two IW heads have been up to. But still, I'm sure this story is a mile away from what the founders of Activision would have envisioned when they started the company up. Weird shit.

So this guys make Activision rich enough to buy all of Indonesia and what do they do? Can them.
 
Activision truly is the new EA.

I always did hate Activision. 

Tensions between Infinity Ward and Activision had intensified in recent months to the point that IW would only deal with two employees from the publisher, according to Kotaku sources."
 
They also link to another old article they wrote.

Interesting story.  I am as eager as anyone to assume that Zampella & West were released due to differences in opinion with Activision on where they see IW going as a studio.  Whatever the reasoning, it is surely going to be a huge blow to morale for the IW developers.  I can easily see Activision installing a "company man" to run the studio from here on out, prompting a further drop in morale and perhaps some high profile resignations. 
 
Then again, it's also possible some generous retention bonuses have or will be paid to the key creative leads at Infinity Ward.  As for Zampella & West, this is all very much a blessing in disguise.  They will not be wanting for new job offers and will are not likely to have much difficulty launching new studios either as a team or on their own.  Best of luck to them.

This reminds me of when Spark was laid off by Activision during the making of Call of Duty 2: Big Red One.

I wish these guys the best, and I hope they are able to go off and make some great new games. I also hope that Kotick gets a reverse pineapple shoved up his arse for this dumbass move. Greed makes people do stupid things.