Alleged Activision memo: Infinity Ward remains central to Call of Duty's future

by David Hinkle on Mar 3rd 2010 12:00PM

We've never been great counters, but we'd say there are three studios working on major Call of Duty games now. A recent internal memo (as reported by G4) apparently confirms that Infinity Ward -- despite all of the recent stuff going down there -- will remain "central" to the franchise. So, counting that studio and Treyarch, along with Sledgehammer Games and its own Call of Duty title, that's ... ~~four~~ three! The Count would be so proud of us!

This internal memo reportedly comes from CEO of Activision Publishing Mike Griffith, who said, "Infinity Ward remains central to Call of Duty's future" and that Activision would continue to "rely on the combined talent, expertise and leadership of the team there for [Call of Duty's] success."

Source

Tags: activision, call-of-duty, fps, infinity-ward, Microsoft, modern-warfare, modern-warfare-2, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (71)

Nazi Zombies doesn't ruin anything

No s***... It's just while IW's creating a true sequel Activision will have a random developer push out another game in the series, so they can cash out on CoD every year....

the money from those other games along with guitar hero helped to get infinity ward where they are now, and they help Activision's smaller studios now.

They are a starting grounds for developers that will hopefully become as good as infinity ward in the future.

Lots of people complain about activision but they are building a strong foundation of developers with the money they are getting from Cod, WoW, Guitar Hero every year. Look at this new transformers game, and Blur, they look good! You know the new call of duty will be more of the same but it's probably going to be a pretty solid game. Wolverine wasn't a terrible game but I imagine those guys learned a lot and can probably put out a great game in the future and activision can continue to nourish them because they are "milking" their popular franchises.

Look at EA, they milked Madden and burnout year after year...but then they used that money and put out dead space, mirror's edge, army of two, mass effect...

@Space

These developers aren't going to want to stick around with the way Activision has been acting. They basically just got a memo that says there is no such thing as job security at Activision.

I just want another game like the first modern warfare... is that too much to ask?

I just wan't Modern Warfare gameplay with destructive environments and vehicles of BFBC... IW IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?!?

Yes, yes it is. You're crazy.

destructive environments, sure. vehicles, please no. all the stupid killstreaks are too many vehicles as it is.

Things are much more balanced when the vehicles spawn on the map and are actual playable entities, just ask Halo or Battlefield.

"leadership of the team"

Lolwut? You decapitated them, Kotick.

World At War was the 1st Treyarch COD game I played, COD3 never came to PC. It wasn't THAT bad.

Of course it wasn't bad. If another developer has done nearly all the work for you, leaving you to reskin, add a few tweaks and improvements, and ship it, it's easy.

At least with Quantum they mixed things up a little more.

On this.. after IW made the engine, Treyarch altered it to WW2.. then didn't IW get it back to add the polish?

Eh, I think MW2 is gonna be the last COD game I'm gonna buy. That is unless Infinity Ward creates "Future Warfare"

I'm with you on this one.

Brothers?

Indeed. While playing Modern Warfare 2, I'd realized that I've felt the gameplay before. In COD4 and World At War. Yeah, most of the time I was playing Nazi Zombies in WaW, but the fact that I've bought the same game three times is just crazy.

IW has a good formula but, they can only do Perks multi-player so long before it gets tiring. Especially with how how Activisions pumping this franchise out left and right

That's allegedly what the two heads wanted to do: a future game, but not Call of Duty.

We all know Kotick probably wanted nothing to do with that.

Well they seemed to be going in that direction in MW2 with heart-beat sensors. Setting your game in the future allows more creative freedom with what you do in both the single player and multiplayer. Definitely interested in what the new IW (once they split off or start a new company) has in store. Remember that Activision didn't want IW to make console games or a game set in modern times. It is obvious that the studio has a lot of talent, but doesn't get to use all of it because they are stuck at Activision's mercy. Kind of like how Bungie was stuck making Halo games for Microsoft.

@UNSC Heartbeat sensors hardly make your game sci fi. Almost all of the stuff in MW2 was real, and if it wasn't it will be in 5 years or so. Although if they do go Sci fi i'd rather have full on lasers and spaceships instead of Video helmets and heartbeat sensors

Do you even know what Science fiction means, Dark wayne? You would think someone who pretends to be Batman on the internet would.

Cyber Soap? Bionic interchangeable mustaches for Price? I'm in.

That's alright man, it seems the new MoH will rock :) ..

If anyone hasn't, they should totally listen to yesterdays Giant Bombcast. They spend about 35 minutes breaking down the whole situation.

After listening to that, I'm still pissed off at Activision, but their discussion made me realize that this thing was inevitable.

Here's a basic summary:

As an employee of Activision, you can say bad shit about the company. But not in public. When your community manager, you know, the guy that's your filter, publicly calls a high up Activision employee a douchebag, and he does not get fired, that shows Acti that IW is cool with that stuff.

The higher ups at IW have been well known as being very hard to work with.

Any sort of sympathy Kotick was starting to get is now gone, and he'll never have another chance to get that back.

Gerstmann talked to a few publishers, and they are ALL in the process of trying to woo Jason West and Vince Zampella.

Did he say who? My guess is EA is most likely, but who else?

I could see EA trying. Although for a good laugh, I kind of want to see them to end up at Blizzard. After all, Blizzard is seperate from Activison, their both just own by the same company (Vivendi).

Though I cannot justify listening to any pawdcast other than the beloved Joystiq Podcast (*wink*), I did listen to this, and at one point I was almost sympathetic to Activision's position. It pays to have all of the facts before making any decisions as to which side of the line you fall on.

PS - Activision still sucks for everything else.

Did Robert Bowling call Kotick a douchebag?

Or was it someone else.

Bowling called Noah Heller a "Super Douche" on his blog.

Bowling is such a dick!

@Canuk no man you're thinking about this wrong, the ultimate hilarity would lie in these two guys going to EA and working on the Medal of Honor game!

at1up Podcast had a good run down at the start of their show as well.

So why didn't Robert Bowling get fired too? I don't understand firing his bosses for something he did but still leaving him in place. Doesn't add up.

I'll stick to the IW made ones....and now that two very important people have left IW I'm going to be paying a LOT of attention to their next CoD game...

I'm still waiting for Call of Duty: Modern Warcraft. Come on Blizzactivision, make it happen already!

"Infinity Ward remains central to Call of Duty's future" *

*But not necessarily the men and women that currently comprise Infinity Ward.

Thou shall count to three, no more, no less.

Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three.

Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three.

Five is right out!

after mw2 infinity ward should always be in center for COD

Too many cooks in the kitchen, Bobby.

What you said looks so wrong next to your avatar...

Pedobear would approve....

hehe my existence feels validated when people get the subtle jokes.

+1 Platinum!

Validated Exiztenz as a Pedo... how nice for you. Freaks Rule!

you say that like it's an insult.

The brand means nothing when the creative force driving it has been gutted. Nice try, Kotick.

judging by the last few years, I'll only buy another COD game if IW makes it.
COD2 great
COD3 garbage
COD4MW incredible
COD WAW decent but nothing compared to MW
MW2 awesome

I completely agree... Treyarch makes, while not horrible but not great COD titles. You can see how every year IW makes one it is just pure awesome and then Treyarch comes out the next year and it feels like they took a step back.

I enjoy the whole series however I enjoy it much more when playing the IW titles.

MW2 proved that IW is more than capable of ruining the franchise by itself.

W@W was a step forward, in practically every way. Large maps, four player co-op, Nazi Zombies, squads and squad commands, and a bona fide medic class of sorts. If anything, MW2 felt like a step back from W@W.

Overheard at Bungie:

"Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer, that's five."
"Three, sir."
"Three, three. Well, we'd better not risk another Orbital Drop; that publisher's dynamite."
"Would it help to confuse it if we release a DVD full of anime?"
"Oh shut up and go and change your Mark VI armor."
"We have the Holy Hand Grenade..."
"Of course, the Holy Hand Grenade of Reach! 'Tis one of the sacred relics Brother Lehto carries with him! BROTHER LEHTO! BRING US THE HOLY HAND GRENADE!"
**Gregorian monks chant the Halo theme as they carry the Holy Hand Grenade of Reach**
"How does it work?"
"Consult the Halo Bible!"
"Fall of Reach, Chapter 2, Verses 9 - 21: And St. O'Connor raised the Holy Hand Grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this thy Hand Grenade, that with it thou mayest blow thine competition to tiny bits, in thy mercy.' And the Lord did grin, and they did build a game with Elites, and Loadouts, and Assassinations, and Jetpacks, and Headhunters, and Needle Rifles, and..."

...sorry, got a little off topic there...

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Alleged Activision memo: Infinity Ward remains central to Call of Duty's future

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