Activision ousts Infinity Ward studio heads [update]

G4's The Feed, which has been in communication with a source at Infinity Ward, reports that organizational changes may be in effect at the FPS developer's offices. The source claims that a "bunch of 'bouncer-types' just showed up outside of the Infinity Ward offices unannounced. When approached by employees, the non-uniformed 'bouncers' were unwilling to disclose why they were there." In addition, The Feed notes that Infinity Ward's studio heads, Vince Zampella and Jason West, were not seen by fellow staff members after a meeting with Activision on Monday morning. A desk guard at Infinity Ward's offices was unable to confirm any of the events to Joystiq, and calls to community manager Robert Bowling went unanswered at the time of writing.

Apparently, on Monday Activision filed a Form 10-K with the SEC, which is basically an overview of the company's financial condition, and includes any information that could possibly affect that condition. This filing states, "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."

Co-studio head Jason West has reportedly changed both his Facebook status and LinkedIn page to indicate that he is no longer employed. As soon as we get more news, we'll pass it along.

Update: Activision has confirmed the departures of Vince Zampella and Jason West. Read here for more details.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Reader Comments (181)

I can't wait til the movie comes out on this....

"Nazi Zombies - The True Story Behind Activision"

More like:

Blood Sucker: Kotick and the Fall of Activision.

this is why i boycott activision now.

http://twitpic.com/165x9z

If they do this Blizzard I promise you that Korea will go to war.

As long as they reach the next checkpoint Activision will stop spawning at their offices

I think that they wanted to move on to something other than MW3, and Bobby Kotick obviously would have none of that.

Activision is..."Assuming control." /Harbigner's Voice

THIS WILL HURT

Kotick: "I will direct this personally."

KEEP IW'S BODY IF POSSIBLE

I am selling my copy of Modern Warfare 2 and hoping beyond hope that Medal of Honor is good.

What the hell is that going to do? Activision already has your money. Now all you will be doing is not having a good game and giving more money to GameStop

For those who know the story of how Call Of Duty came to be....

Wouldn't it be funny if they went to work on the Medal of Honor series now?

Wow this is looking like IW is getting shafted by the A-Holes at Activision. Sux for those guys.

Theres some more rumors about this at eurogamer

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/activision-holding-back-mw2-royalties

If this is true then i smell activsion not liking the idea of losing the golden goose, that said if you don't feed it it tends to happen!

I've never read such a passive description of a company's 10-k. A lot of people get paid a lot of money to put that thing together. You should... maybe... show some more... respect towards the industry.

A company's financial statements and 10-K are the BEST ways to learn how a company is really doing. Most people don't notice or take the time to read those those fillings, but they're important for investors. I've read 10-Ks were companies basically stated 'we're near bankruptcy' unless certain events occur. And then when the company goes out of business, people say-- 'I didn't realize that was coming' and it was in their financial documents all along.

I don't think they're written with the intention of people's feelings, but rather they're a statement of fact, concern, or forward looking concern.

There are companies that get sued by investors for not disclosing such information if it potentially affects the bottom line or their investment.

THAT's what i'm talking about. THANK YOU NICK. And for the record PwC sux.

Dare I say this is Activision at its worst? Nah, they can probably do worse things.

For some odd reason, this reminds me of that line from AVP: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

The age of EA being the assholes is over...maybe it's time to ally with the Ol' "Evil Ampire"? Is that what it takes to defeat this monster which we call Activision?

True Mr Khan, but they'd also be getting a bigger cut off by themselves, and still getting a lot of residual sales based on who they are.

Look at Free Radical. Haze was a putrid game that sold almost a million copies because it was made by the "dudes that made Goldeneye."

I thought Haze was supposed to be pretty good after the patches? Or was that LIAR?

LIAR indeed.

"calls to community manager Robert Bowling went unanswered at the time of writing."

You couldn't get a response from FourZeroTwo? I'm so shocked I'm speechless.

Come on guys, don't read too much into this. Most likely the disgreement was over who is in control of the CoD IP. Activision bought it and thus is in control, but the IW folks felt they should call the shots. Despite continued indications that this is not acceptable, the IW folks continue to act as if they should run the show. And this is insubordinate.

And I'm not blaming the IW guys here. Activision seem to be dicks to work with and you don't own your own IP anymore, so the wise thing to do is to get out. It worked before when they left the Medal of Honor projects.

In a perfect world, the IP wouldn't mean as much as the developers, which would mean that Activision would have lost the entire future of their investment. Unfortunately, a ton of people will still buy it just because it's called Modern Warfare, and they pimp the name out just like they've done with Guitar Hero.

I agree. The IP shouldn't mean nearly as much as it does. It should be about as valuable as the character art (models), nothing more.

If the excellence leaves IW, eventually the game sales will too, but it won't be as rapid as it would be in a just world.

This rather sucks.

I don't know the details involved, and I suspect we'll never know the details.

I could only imagine what may have happened, and it's sad that the result was possibly two IW execs leaving. I don't know who's right or who's wrong, but anytime you have heads of company involved, you begun to wonder about the company's future. It seems like the landscape is littered with execs who left successful companies and started over or seemingly disappeared altogether.

Infinity Ward is hands down, one of the best developers around today. MW and MW2 are among favorite and most played games. It's a shame when stuff like this happens.

Kotick has a freaking goon squad under his direction?

Oh no, Infinity Ward is no longer Oscar Mike :(

I'm reserving judgment on the matter and I think you should to. No one knows what happened yet. These guys could be selling code or assets under the table or some shit. We just don't know yet.

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Activision ousts Infinity Ward studio heads [update]

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Posted: Mar 2nd 2010 9:42AM (Unverified) said

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