Infinity Ward News

[Frank-the-Rabbit]

I don't know if many of you heard but it sounds like Vince Zampella(the Studio Head/CEO) and Jason West(President/Game Director/CCO/CTO) of Infinity Ward have left the developer. Infinity Ward of course is the developer responsible for Modern Warfare 2. There were reports in the past of issues between IW and Activison their parent company but the loss of the two top guys in the studio is very surprising. Especially with Activison head Bobby Kotick claiming that: "The thing you realize is that creative, inspired people really do need to control their destiny. If you create a culture that values independent thought and fosters independent operation and lets independent talent control much of their destiny, you'll get great games." in his speech at DICE just a few weeks ago. There is alot more info on this at the G4 website (http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/tag/7820/Fall-of-Duty.html).

[thedeparted]

Yeah I heard, I bet it has something to do with kotick wanting to start charging COD online like an mmo

[Frank-the-Rabbit]

More news! Go West and Zampella!


It looks like the former leadership of Infinity Ward are not going down without a fight. Former Infinity Ward CTO Jason West and president Vince Zampella have officially filed a lawsuit against Activision, according to a press release issued by their lawfirm, O'Melveny & Myers LLP.
According to the release, West and Zampella were terminated by Activision "weeks" before receiving royalties for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Activision purchased Infinity Ward in 2003.
"We were shocked by Activision's decision to terminate our contract," said West. "We poured our heart and soul into that company, building not only a world class development studio, but assembling a team we've been proud to work with for nearly a decade. We think the work we've done speaks for itself."
O'Melveny & Myers LLP attorney Robert Schwartz is suing Activision in pursuit of West and Zampella's right to compensation for the production and sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and the contractual rights allegedly granted to the duo to control "Modern Warfare-branded games." If seems West and Zampell may be fighting for the right to create Modern Warfare games outside Activision or to prevent Activision from creating Modern Warfare-branded games. Until we have more details, it's difficult to draw a specific conclusion.
Here's the full passage.
"Modern Warfare 2 is arguably one of the most successful games in history and together with Call of Duty, has generated more than $3 billion in sales for Activision. In addition, Activision seized control of the Infinity Ward studio, to which Activision had previously granted creative control over all Modern Warfare-branded games. The suit was filed to vindicate the rights of West and Zampella to be paid the compensation they have earned, as well as the contractual rights Activision granted to West and Zampella to control Modern Warfare-branded games."
"Activision has refused to honor the terms of its agreements and is intentionally flouting the fundamental public policy of this State (California) that employers must pay their employees what they have rightfully earned," said Schwartz in the release. "Instead of thanking, lauding, or just plain paying Jason and Vince for giving Activision the most successful entertainment product ever offered to the public, last month Activision hired lawyers to conduct a pretextual 'investigation' into unstated and unsubstantiated charges of 'insubordination' and 'breach of fiduciary duty,' which then became the grounds for their termination on Monday, March 1st."
According to the release, the suit is alleging "breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, wrong termination in violation of public policy, and declaratory relief."
The implications of this lawsuit are tremendous and far-reaching. Stay tuned for more.
Read more: http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/tag/3326/Videogames.html#ixzz0hBi6pnit

This is very eye opening and makes me hope that Blizzard has enough of their own control to stop Activison from pulling this same kind of thing on them.

[The Jackall]

They really should pull their heads in

Rule The Seas

[thedeparted]

More people leaving,





Despite rumours of Call of Duty developers being "held hostage" over withheld bonus payments, it nevertheless looks like more of those involved with the series have begun to leave Infinity Ward following the sacking of the studio's founders.

As revealed by the pair's Linkedin profiles (pictured below), Todd Alderman, a Lead Designer and one of the key personnel involved in Modern Warfare's multiplayer (not to mention Modern Warfare 2's story), left the company last week, as did Francesco Gigliotti, Infinity Ward's lead software engineer. Both were long-serving members of the studio, Alderman having been with Infinity Ward for eight years, Gigliotti for seven.


http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/9/2010/04/500x_linkedin.jpg

Their departures come only a month after publishers Activision sacked Infinity Ward bosses Vince Zampella and Jason West over allegations of "breaches of contract and insubordination". It's unclear what Zampella and West are planning in the wake of their firing, though the pair have signed with a Hollywood talent agency.

The circumstances under which Alderman and Gigliotti left the studio are unclear, though a source close to the studio suggests they both resigned. We'll update this post if we hear anything more

[Charlotte]

Dang at Bobby Kotick, what make he thing so...

[thedeparted]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRU5f-081LE

I wonder if Activision will now merge Treyarch and what's left of IW into one studio to make COD games now on. Probably not as they'd probably wouldn't want to turn away the annual release that 2 studios making COD can do, bi-annual would be nicer imo

[HamadaLFC8]

Woa... that's quiet a lot of people xD

I heard that Infinity Ward are now stepping it up and merging with EA ? Is that right ?

[thedeparted]

Woa... that's quiet a lot of people xD

I heard that Infinity Ward are now stepping it up and merging with EA ? Is that right ?

Naw, IW is owned by Activision and they aint letting a cash cow leave. I think what your talking about is the studio that the former members formed Respawn Entertainment and they signed up with EA to be their overlord

[NickiViper]

loool cant wait til mw2 maps come out.

[Jjjet1]

what in the world? I know that they were pissed when treyarch came into the picture with COD3 (which is a POS imo). But I wonder what they will do. Activision must have done somethnig to piss all of them off.