The scary case of Infinity Ward

Either it's a stunt to announce their new game, or Activision said something to him he didn't like, didn't stand for it and he got fired. Because as he put it on Twitter, it doesn't sound like he quit.

It's an ill-timed publicity stunt -- ill-timed because the thing going on with Portal is a whole magnitude more interesting.

If publicity stunt then they better have something awesome up their sleeves.

Assuming for real then:

Wow. Jason is one of the best engineering leads I have ever met in this industry. Very focused, driven guy who produces results. Same with Vince, except he is more COO/producer then code lead. Very curious what happened and what will happen with the crew IW.

Composite...I doubt you can say but I know we would all love an update. Hope you guys are hanging in there.

Yikes! That's crazy if true. I don't believe the stuff that's been said so far with Activision refusing to pay royalties though, you'd have to be completely brain dead to not want to please the most successful studio in the business today. But who knows, there's obviously something heavy going down there if this is the case.

Hope all this turns out not as serious as it's sounding right now :G

The G4TV article now links to an SEC filing which supposedly notes that Actiblizz is investigating IW for "Insubordination by two senior staff", though the page is so huge that it made my browser croak and I had to kill it before I could scan through the article to see if it was real.

Has anyone actually heard any jokes/comments about Activision from IW lately? I can't think of anything since the "Fear Uncertainty and Doubt" profiles from that one MW2 multiplayer preview.

Here is the exact quote from that SEC filing, under "Commitments and Contingencies" section on page F-50 just in case ye olde curiositee be thy biting thoust:

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In November 2009, the Company released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a game developed by one of the Company's wholly-owned studios, Infinity Ward. As noted above, Modern Warfare 2 was the best selling console title in the U.S. and Europe in 2009. Consistent with past practice, the Company intends to release a Call of Duty game in 2010 developed by another wholly-owned studio. 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.

Sounds pretty real.

Activision... Activision never changes.

Oh... whoa. That's crazy.

http://kotaku.com/comment/19990330/

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The RUMOR that's been floating around is that West and Co. flatly refused Activison's "orders" to make MW3 THIS YEAR, along with 3-5 DLC's leading to a surprise showing of MW3 within the last DLC marketing it as a huge reveal. (making gamers anticipate what the big reveal might be, thus making many of them buy it).West also protested his distaste of another developer making more COD games every year and threatened to leave if MW3 was put into the hands of another developer. Not making MW3 when Activision wanted it (being this year) was the part of the breach of contract.

Remember. THIS IS A RUMOR and it sounds crazy

Rumors and all, I know, but to be honest then it wouldn't surprise me that Activision would pursue this kind of action.

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":nfzy4bwz]Activision... Activision never changes.

I'll second that, i've seen my share of Activision-isms!

RedOctane...

Quote from Mazy

http://kotaku.com/comment/19990330/

Rumors and all, I know, but to be honest then it wouldn't surprise me that Activision would pursue this kind of action.

Haha, true Mazy. Remember what they did to the Guitar Hero franchise...had about 3-4 games a year.

Kind of not surprised that something happen. There was a feeling that the two had not gotten along for a long time.

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The RUMOR that's been floating around is that West and Co. flatly refused Activison's "orders" to make MW3 THIS YEAR, along with 3-5 DLC's leading to a surprise showing of MW3 within the last DLC marketing it as a huge reveal. (making gamers anticipate what the big reveal might be, thus making many of them buy it).

Err, sounds completely unrealistic !? Making a game plus 3 to 5 DLCs in less than twelve months ??

They've seen the potential of the CoD franchise, and they want to milk as much money out of it as possible. Just having "Call of duty" on the case will be enough to sell at least a couple million copies now. Put yourself on their shoes, not shipping CoD games now is like saying no to money.

Call of duty is the new EAsports FIFA.

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UPDATE 12:02 AM: Double Fine's Tim Schafer, who had his own troubles with Activision over the release of Brutal Legend recently commented on Twitter about what's happening between Infinity Ward and Activision."Getting mad at Activision for this kind of thing is like getting mad at an ape for throwing feces," said Schafer. "It's just how the beast communicates."

Actiblizz better have a good explanation for this.

Doesn't this just mean there will be a big bidding war between EA, UBI etc... about who will give the IW team the best deal.

iw is activision OWNED right ?! there is not gonna be a bidding war over anything ...

maybe once these guys have started a new studio and established a new winning ip

As retarded as this is, its sounds like business.

Your boss/owner/shareholder tells you to do something, you flat out refuse, you get fired?

Everything always boils down to money in the end.

Quote from Mazy

http://kotaku.com/comment/19990330/

Rumors and all, I know, but to be honest then it wouldn't surprise me that Activision would pursue this kind of action.

That guy is gonna become a legend in the industry if that's true (hope it is).