Activision Cans Infinity Ward Studio Heads

The Company is concluding an internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward. This matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation. At present, the Company does not expect this matter to have a material impact on the Company.

Yep.

crazy times

wow

Yeah, so screw all the people that were like "OMG ITS A PUBLICITY STUNT" :P
 
Too bad for those guys.

Wow,  this is unreal.  I'm going out on a limb and guessing that Kotick's a complete moron here.  How do you can the heads of IW?  You're pwned mate.

Hot damn! 

wow thats crazy but hell atleast we get extra bomcast

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

its probably because MW2 sucked so much and they know it

We're currently planning on going back in to record an additional segment for this week's podcast to discuss this ongoing situation, and I'd expect that some choice quotes from Kotick's meetings with IW will be circulating later today.

Gotta love to hate Kotick.

Here's wondering what 'subordination' means in this case.
 
guess Kotick will give us a (PR heavy) speech about this soon i guess.

Fuck Activison, Blizzard should just leave them and go back to being themselves.  Activision will die without Infinity Ward and Blizzard.

"

We're currently planning on going back in to record an additional segment for this week's podcast to discuss this ongoing situation, and I'd expect that some choice quotes from Kotick's meetings with IW will be circulating later today.

I was wondering if this news was going to be big enough to warrant such an action. I'm always up for more bombcast :). "

if any company has cash they should def get these guys

This blows my mind. But then again, it is Activision, so should I really be surprised?

It's also being said that no one at IW has received royalties for MW2 yet.

Bobby Kotick: The Sarah Palin of video games.

As much as it sucks for the guy and im sure a giant following of anti-activision groups will start boycotting everything that comes out by them i have to honestly say i will still buy from them.. he isn't my friend or family and personally i have never heard of the guy till now but im sure he got the shit end of the stick and that sucks but i needs mah vidjagames

" Bobby Kotick: The Sarah Palin of video games. "

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.

How long can you make fun of your billion-dollar employer while making and game for them and get away with it? 
 
About 4 months after release apparently.

This is the end of the world.

I have said it before so I'll say it again, the SEC is serious business and they don't mess around with the allegations that Activision is levying against Infinity Ward. If Activision's evidence is concrete, which it looks like it is, then the heads of Infinity Ward should be fired. However if Activision is using the SEC to threaten and push out the heads of Infity Ward then I hope Bobby Kotick gets burned on the stake.

Damn man.

Unless it's embezzlement, I am sure a lot of dev's will try to get these guys.  Maybe EA can grab em so that DICE can finally stop dicking around and make Battlefield 3.  They should go to make their own studio and be under MS or work with Epic for a new Unreal Tournament game.  Yay!

That is a real shame.  Sorry that those guys lost their jobs, but I doubt they will have any problem finding new ones with such a pedigree behind them (barring that they didn't embezzle money or any other such illegal activities). 
 
I guess this also means MW3 will never be the same.  Bad news on all fronts.  Would really like to know the full story.

Activision: Ruining everything since 2008.

Well we are still waiting to hear the complete story on Jeff.... So you are so right in saying that we will never get the full story....

Bobby Kotick; Destroying the gaming industry- one developer at a time.
 
He's making money for the investors and completely destroying us gamers. Stop him before it's too late.

I bet the "security types" were actually Storm Troopers...

This opens the door to Call of World of Dutycraft, an MMO that pits the Alliance against the Horde using modern day weaponry and featuring leveling and massive killstreak perks. 
 
Dutycraft...heh.

 Jeff said:

We're currently planning on going back in to record an additional segment for this week's podcast to discuss this ongoing situation, and I'd expect that some choice quotes from Kotick's meetings with IW will be circulating later today. 

Glad to hear that your going back to the bombcast! (did you get all the hoo-hah about Portal aswell?)

does kotick have hair pluggz

@Jeff:

One thing is for sure and that is  Bobby Kotick should have is butt fired out of a cannon!

 
I hate that guy....

I bet Kotick's top priority will be to legally cripple any new venture and do his best to keep the rest of the developers at IW from fleeing. He doesn't want another Rock Band.
 
Makes me wonder what sort of non-compete clause, if any, those two had in their contracts.

They should go back to EA and work on a new Medal of Honor.

" 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. "

Remember how that awful grenade spam video was produced by a video production team that had some weird unspecified overlap with IW? At the time I thought it was a little weird that a wholly-owned studio would have a side project like this. Any bets on whether that has anything to do with the current flap?

  This seems so similar to a story that happened to a person named J Gerstmann.    

Awesome that you guys are adding another segment to the podcast. Interested to hear what you guys have to say.

"

Activision: Ruining everything since 2008.

"

Clusterfuck of the Week, can't wait to hear your guys' take.

Wow at the past two days of gaming related news. This is all crazy. Hopefully this will end up with Activision going down, the canned devs making better games, and episode 3/portal mashup later this year.  
 
I can dream.