Activision confirms Infinity Ward studio heads' departures; Publishing execs take over

I think we should protest by not buying Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2! We should protest by buying Call of Duty: Modern Warfare!

As a followup, and this is just purely my conspiricy thoughts right now, but I wonder if this has to do with Activistion's push to make COD games subscription based...perhpas the IW heads refused to play ball and now they have been shown the door in order to clear up any resistance to Kotick's schemes...

I just had an orgasm thinking of what would happen if IW joined EA:

-Collaboration with DICE making the ultimate FPS experience. The game would have a Battlefield mode with large maps and vehicles, and have a Call of Duty mode where it focuses on infantry combat
-Single player by IW with Frostbyte engine making even crazier set-pieces
-Story by Bioware
-Music by Jack Wall, and Hans Zimmer collab

The jokes on him, activision will be seriously fcked when it comes to the 8th CoD

In other news, Kotick said that Activision plans to triple the number of CoD IPs released in 2010.

These two guys were responsible for creating one of the biggest video game franchises ever and their reward for that is getting canned?

Only at Activision.

Although that action-adventure one Sledgehammer are doing could be interesting...

Lets wait to see how it play's out.

Yeap, and then completely shut down Infinity Ward in 2011 due to sagging FPS sales...

Dear Blizzard,

Wake up, you're next.

Sincerely,
Someone who loves good games

Congrats Activision. You've made enemies of the entire gaming population.

Call of Duty (only the Infinity Ward made ones) were the only games that I purchased from your company because Infinity Ward's level of quality was leaps and bounds higher than anything else you produce.

With this, I'm never buying anything from your company again. And will push my friends to do the same. Who's with me?

I actually think that when Bobby Kotick sends an army of bouncers into the building, and then installs Activision executives as the new studio heads, he thinks he's being a strong leader.

Time and again, he has shown that he does not understand that creative/technical types do not respond well to this whole "I AM IN CONTROL!" act. He may be the only person on Earth who is surprised when every single talented developer in that shop decides they are sick of this shit and goes to work somewhere else.

I really fear for Blizzard at this point. If Kotick has no problem dismantling the studio that just delivered a billion-dollar retail hit, then he certainly won't balk at bringing his "hands-on management" to the Blizzard teams.

Has Kotick forgot how IW came to exist?It looks like COD will follow MOH into the afterlife!

Well, I say it's the perfect time for Infinity Ward to make an Inglorious Basterds FPS.

Ok, everyone load up on pitchforks and torches, lets go burn activision's business department to the ground!

Well if more of the IW team leaves and decides that they are going to create another franchise FPS on their own. Yep, will no longer need to buy activision products :D

Several things went through my head when I heard about the two people at IW getting replaced:

1) It is remarkably similar to the Activision Guitar Hero CEO getting replaced. Basically, someone with a personality and their own set of ideas is not going to last long at Bobby Kotick's Activision. Unless you're willing to conform or don't mind reporting to Frodo, then it's OK. You lose whatever creativity that brought to that point in the process.

2) The two guys at IW must have done somethine egregious to get asked to leave. They may have indeed breached their contract or done behavior to breach their contract. Talking with a competitor (EA, SCEA, Epic, etc.) is one way to do that. Refusing to listen to anything Activision/Kotick directs to do is another. Activision wouldn't ask the two head guys of a studio after making one of the top selling games of all time to leave unless they were planning that from the start.

The bottom line is the average video game consumer will not notice this other than "man, that sucks in this economy" and ignore Activision until the next COD comes out.

there is far too much upranking on this post.

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new company inc? just as i finish my game dev course.

Someone please burn down Kotick's house...with him in it.

*Channel 13 news report*

"...and nothing of value was lost."

Apparently this is all because of a few anal moves by activision.

Apparently the IW did not get any of the royalty money from sales of MW2 due to a clause in the contract somwhere, all that money went to activision, this pissed off people in IW as you would expect, missing out on bonuses for their hard work etc.

Various employees then looked to escape from Activision after there contracts expire (later this year) then activision decided to invoke another clause in a different contract which is basically "dont speak to the enemy".

and whats worse?

Apparently they have a clause saying that the employes who leave / are fired are not allowed to work for a company / make a new company which focuses on developing products in direct competition with activisions, for 5 years after leaving.

I'm not a Bobby Kotick fan but do you seriously believe that he, on his own, with no reference to the Activision board, went into Infinity Ward with a company of security guards and ejected two heads of the studio from the building without serious cause, justification and the proof needed to back up the allegations Activision was making?

Seriously, there's a lot of people on these forums who know a lot about gaming and not a lot about business.

Successful ( and like him or not, he is ) people like Bobby Kotick do not get to where they are by making stupid decisions so I expect further revelations. This won't be about people breaking their contract or looking to defect to a rival company. When you send in a security team like that it's because you're reasonably assured that removing the members of staff is likely to result in sabotage of company resources, fraudulent behaviour or industrial espionage.

Personally I'm not entirely bothered. Call of Duty 6 was an impressive game for me but a dissapointment when compared to the hopes I had after the first Modern Warfare. Not enough was done to make the game better, the writing was downright shoddy at times, and whilst the mechanics were spot on perfect the debacle of the Multiplayer ruined it for me.

When you consider that alongside the inexcusable customer relations of Robert Bowling's team and the way in which they've responded to pulbic outcry and it will be nice to see a change at the top.

activision owns blizzard...blizzard owns world of warcraft. activision can do whatever they want.

Throughout all this, I feel bad for the software developers, as their jobs are the ones on the line here. They have a great team there, some of the best games I've ever played [yes, Modern Warfare 2 non-singleplayer included] with fantastic quality. I just hope the spirit of these wonderful artists doesn't get crushed, as that would be the true tragedy to come of all this.