Rumor: Infinity Ward employees not leaving due to unpaid royalties, morale 'extremely low'

I hope they do too....

if I were them I would Rage Quit and file a lawsuit

They would get their money if they grow a pair and quit/strike. IW is their golden goose, they will pay to keep them but they wont pay if they dont have to.

What exactly are they afraid of? Getting hired at another place that pays more money? Anyone that worked on CoD4 can pretty much do whatever they want.

I wouldn't speak until you've actually worked in the game industry. It's not so easy to just pick up and move cities to work for another dev. It's not like there are 7 high end developers working in every major city. These people have families and most often, relocating is not a viable option. Striking is not an option since most times, coders, texture artists, modelers, animators all grow on trees. There are a TON of school pumping these kids out. You really have to stay ahead of the game and be thankful when (IF) you find a full time gig as opposed to a 3-6month contract. Lawsuits generally cost a ton and are a lot more trouble than the money you get out of it. Even if you do win, it's more of a moral victory than a monetary gain.

I don't work in the game industry, but I do FX at a studio for major motion pictures, and it is a VERY cutthroat world out there. Threatening to leave makes studios laugh and show you the door. There are no unions, but a million junior artists that are just WAITING to take your job (at less pay, and working more hours, since theyre so naieve). The studios don't see the correlation between skilled, happy workers and a good final product. They'll often save a buck whenever they can.

Heh He Activisiom. Got a secret here for ya. Guess what?

Go f*** yourselves

You answered your own question

Milk-a-whaaat?

/i want some milkahol

Is that like nogasake? one part eggnog two parts sake?

The music game sales have been on a steep decline though. The same will eventually happen with CoD if Activision continues as they have been.

Its pretty much exactly what happened with Tony Hawk as well.

I myself can't wait for the rifle peripheral.

CoD: Modern Beach Volleyball?

you know, i have to disagree with you here. I think a large part of the MW2 playerbase understands that IW is THE reason that the games are so good. the more news that comes out about unhappy IW employees and people leaving, the more chance people will have second thought about buying a COD game. Once the old IW people make their own studio and start making games, the fans will follow them.

@305Cane

I disagree. Most of the people I know bought MW2 because they really liked World at War. I shit you not. Joe Gamer has no idea who Infinity Ward is and only that they loved shooting stuff in those Call of Duty games.

yeah most of my non-gaming friends that play MW2 only CoD games. They don't play other games and they don't know who infinity ward is.

It's just... "disappointing."

I always hated it when my parents were "disappointed" in me rather than mad at me. That's always so much worse. :S

http://bbsimg.ngfiles.com/1/20229000/ngbbs4ae2d79d92aab.jpg

These people likely do not have employment contracts that guarantee them anything. I can't imagine what the NLRB could do.

Oh please. It's the US government! They can do anything!

@why not

I would imagine that they do have the bonuses/royalties written into their contracts. If the standard procedure is to get below industry wages with the knowledge that you'll make more in bonuses/royalties, than that would normally be stipulated in the employment contracts.

I'm not an attorney, but if their employement contracts specified that royalties would be paid in lieu of a higher salary, I'm willing to bet there was a date attached to payment. If Activision doesn't pay, they'd be in breach of contract. If there isn't a date attached to payment of royalities, then the employees should GTFO simply because they have bad contracts.
What's sad about the possibility of IW breaking up is what they did well hasn't been replicated anywhere else. MW2 was a spectacle just like any blockbuster movie was. Like him or not, Robert Bowling is one hell of a CM/PR person. Name one other third party that has someone as high profile. And I'm willing to bet EVERYONE remembers the launch trailer for MW2. I know I do. How many other trailers do you remember six months later?

The people talked about here don't have employment contracts. They're not executives. It's employment at will. They are expecting bonuses, but it's unlikely it's written down anywhere for anybody but executives. It's a hard world of work out there.

77:
I don't remember the MW2 launch trailer. I was unaware it even had one. I think the main marketing tool used to increase sales of MW2 was CoD4.

@Bailers
I still remember Shaun White snowboarding commercials, House of the Dead:OVERKILL, MadWorld's 5 second end saying "Come hack with Jack in Madworld!" at the end of the House of the Dead:OVERKILL commericals, The Conduit's Commericals, I remember SMG commercials, Metriod Prime 3, and many more.

They recieve low cost of living pay to maintain them UNTIL their royalties roll in. Kind of like a waiter; they get a really low salary plus tips.

It says "regular salaries".

And these are bonuses, not royalties. No one pays programmers royalties (been one for 20 years). You can get royalties as long as the thing keeps selling. That's why they aren't given. These are one-time bonuses based upon metacritic rating, schedule dates, etc. If the game sells twice as many copies as expected (not even sure how that's possible!) then these bonuses would not be double-sized, but royalties would.

Maybe you just answered you own question. What if instead of a bonus based on initial performance, everyone is receiving royalties from MW2? It sounds like an accounting nightmare, and completely unlikely, but it's just an idea.

*your own question

One could make an argument that "regular salaries" are inappropriate or low for a developer who has made two of the best selling, highest profit games in the history of the industry in just 2 1/2 years.

@why not, I don't think you read the statement correctly. It didn't say "rather than traditional salaries" - it said "rather than a traditional salary-based reward system." I think what they mean by a "traditional salary-based reward system" is probably something like "you can get a bonus of up to 100% of your salary." Instead of that, IW gives royalties that are directly linked to the game's sales. IMHO.

Courtney:
One could make an argument for anything. In this case you'd be wrong. Pay for programmers is based upon merit (at best), not based upon how much what you work on sells.

Bonuses could be based upon sales if you are lucky.

Pardon me, but you're just as wrong, it depends entirely on the company and contract. I know people who've worked on software projects ranging from a Windows OS to internet apps to games, and any number of them have been paid based on the profitability of the product they are working on (ie, getting paid more because you're working on a bigger, more important product). Pretty normal in my experience.

Courtney:
It's not. Sorry. Glad your friends got some of this. But if you work below the director level at a company that you don't own, your pay is virtually never determined by the profitability or sales of the company (unless you are a salesman on commission!).

What is "a Windows OS"? You mean Windows? Microsoft doesn't profit share and they don't have employment contracts either for non-executives (below Director level that is). It's employment-at-will. They do have merit bonuses, but those are tied to your performance (in theory) not product performance.

Did you really just say "what is a Windows OS?" You speak like a some expert on high on the software industry, and you really ask that. As in operating system.

Friends I had worked on operating systems for MS around 2K and early XP, and the way they talked, their pay was tied to the fact that they were working on the premier product for MS, and their bonuses were contractually obligated.

As a much lesser employee (non-software), I've received contractually obligated performance bonuses tied to the success of the product that were spelled out in print. This concept seems pretty normal to me across a range of industries, but totally alien to you. Perhaps your experience just hasn't been with good companies.

Do you have some particular dog in this race, as you are personally involved with either IW or Activision?

I'm asking, what does

'I know people who've worked on software projects ranging from a Windows OS'

You mean they worked on Windows? Yeah if they worked at Windows, they worked at MS. MS doesn't have profit sharing. And they have employment-at-will. They could fire you tomorrow and you aren't owed anything. Bonuses are tied to your own performance. If you do a good job, you can get a good bonus. But you might not too, and you have no recourse. This is development of which I speak (software), sales is definitely different and other areas might be too.

You're conflating performance bonuses with product success bonuses. Which is it? Let me put it this way. If you only did the minimum work and your boss knew it then the product was a huge success anyway, would you get paid a big bonus or a small one? If you get a big one, it's a product success bonus, if you get a small one or none it's a performance bonus. I can't imagine how it could be both.

I don't have a dog in this race. I'm just trying to clear up the wrong info you're putting out.

The article reads as if these people got "regular salaries" and now act like they are owed more. I'm sure they want more, they may even expect more, but that isn't the same as being owed more.

I'd love to hear developers are being treated better. But I don't expect it to happen, simply because companies don't have to do it. Same as in Hollywood, below the line people don't get money based upon the success of the movie.

Well look at it this way I think most people have stopped buying Activision games aside from CoD MW and GH, after all these I doubt we'll see another IW made MW game... Since I havent bought a GH game since the first one and dont like WWII FPSs, boycotts will be a lot easier.

@ a442585

That's your prerogative. I personally will not fund organizations that display immoral business practices (as I am made aware of such infractions). Not paying employees perfomance based rewards, for work on a title that exceeded most rational sales expectations, is not a behavior that I can endorse.

@a442585 [Honorary Planeteer | Power of Being Spencer Pratt's Used Tampon]

A lot of people care about issues that don't directly affect them, but the fact that someone or something is being mistreated is usually the reason why people boycott stuff.

Capitalism!