So if you haven't heard yet, all of the lead designers/programmers/artists for IW have left the company. Don't know where they're going, but I'd guess Respawn Entertainment, the new company founded by West and Zampella, the former IW heads who left the company. Now, we still don't know which lawsuit is telling the truth, but in this news seems to be pretty telling: why else would all of the design heads leave if they weren't pissed at IW? Of course, they could all just want to work at Respawn, but it seems like either Activision really was being assholes. Even if they didn't do what West/Zampella claimed they did, the fact that they're leaving must at least mean they haven't been nice overlords for the past 3 years if all of the staff are inclined to believe west/zampella's side of the story. 
 
Now all that's left to do is see if they all join respawn. that might explain it, but I doubt it.

So if you haven't heard yet, all of the lead designers/programmers/artists for IW have left the company. Don't know where they're going, but I'd guess Respawn Entertainment, the new company founded by West and Zampella, the former IW heads who left the company. Now, we still don't know which lawsuit is telling the truth, but in this news seems to be pretty telling: why else would all of the design heads leave if they weren't pissed at IW? Of course, they could all just want to work at Respawn, but it seems like either Activision really was being assholes. Even if they didn't do what West/Zampella claimed they did, the fact that they're leaving must at least mean they haven't been nice overlords for the past 3 years if all of the staff are inclined to believe west/zampella's side of the story. 
 
Now all that's left to do is see if they all join respawn. that might explain it, but I doubt it.

I'm glad that one of Activision's leading studios is now basically dead. They are all that is wrong with the gaming industry and I enjoy it when I see their franchises crash and burn. I hope Respawn entertainment gets it's shit together and releases modern warfare 3 in 2013 under EA, then maybe they won't be under pressure to release overpriced DLC or meet tight deadlines.

Best of luck to them. Personally I'm pretty ambivalent with what happened. I'm pretty sure Activision still owns the CoD IP, and subsequently Modern Warfare. There will be a MW3 one way or another: there's simply too much money involved. Whether or not the remnants of IW will be working on it is another matter. 

You'll know Infinity Ward's oficially dead if Robert Bowling jumps ship.

...And that's why Activision should have tried harder to diversify. The majority of their income comes from their 3 biggest IPs (WoW, CoD/Modern Warfare, and the "Hero" games). They're set to lose a large part of their income from this whole ordeal. Granted, the average consumer doesn't know, or care about the inner-workings of IW/Activision, but if their next product doesn't live up to the pedigree they've established, they're going to lose customers in the years to follow. I'm really glad that this turned out in EA's favor. They're certainly not without fault (far from it), but I can respect what they've been trying to do in recent years. They've been experimenting with new IPs, and branching out instead of sitting on a few proven successes. I'm very curious to see what comes out of Respawn in the years to come.

The problem I see here is that Activision may start eying Blizzard in the future.  Why?  Because they can fire the top guys, sit back and laugh while the rest of the studio follows suit, and then suddenly they completely control Diablo, Warcraft, and Starcraft.

As far as I'm concerned, Infinity Ward is a hollow shell of the studio it once was, and Activision's utter exploitation of CoD is to blame. Look at all the positive things people were saying about CoD4, how it dethroned Halo 3, everyone played and loved that game, I can't remember anyone bashing that game like MW2 has been, and rightfully so with overpriced DLC and half-assed debugging attempts. I hope the rash of people leaving IW causes more people to leave the studio, maybe for Respawn, so they can get their IP and the royalties deserved, if they stay with Activision, they are screwed.

Yep, Activisions decisions are now coming back to bite them on the ass. Maybe this will be a wake up call to Activision to turn their act around but I doubt it as long as Kotick is in charge. 

" The problem I see here is that Activision may start eying Blizzard in the future.  Why?  Because they can fire the top guys, sit back and laugh while the rest of the studio follows suit, and then suddenly they completely control Diablo, Warcraft, and Starcraft. "

" Yep, Activisions decisions are now coming back to bite them on the ass. Maybe this will be a wake up call to Activision to turn their act around but I doubt it as long as Kotick is in charge.  "

Great video here with a roll-call on who's gone. MW3 isn't going to have much of a story if it stays in Activision's hands