One of the greatest first person shooters of all time may be headed for a huge speed bump this week as Infinity Ward president, game director Jason West and CEO Vince Zapella were let go for apparent breaches of contract and insubordination.  Activisions human resources is conducting an internal investigation on the matter.  Activision does not expect that the game or the company will be impacted from the departures and litigation. 

The firings coincide with Activisions Security and Exchange Commission annual report which included a notice that the pair would be fired.

The included filing read:

The Company [Activision] 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

A report at G4 claims an unnamed source said that for several weeks there have been “tense” moments between Infinity Ward and parent company Activision which ultimately came to a boiling point at a morning board room meeting with studio and publisher heads.  The report claims that the Infinity Ward president and CEO apparently “vanished” shortly after the meeting and a group of “bouncer types” were left hanging around the offices which left the rest of the developers “freaked out”.  Some companies hire personal security to escort fired employees off the property if they think there will be trouble.  Obviously Activision was worried there could have been altercations after the firings.

Holy smokes!  There are huge doubts about the future of Infinity Ward and the Call of Duty Modern Warfare games in my opinion.  Will the talent who developed Modern Warfare 2 hang out and make Activisions proposed future ”unique new IP”, or if there will be a brain drain from the company as loyal developers and friends of West and Zampella leave town?  What about the new MW2 downloadable content pack due out in the spring?

Later in the week things got nastier.  There are reports that West and Zampella have filed lawsuits against Activision for wrongful termination. 

Here is a quote directly from their attorney Robert Schwartz:

Instead of thanking, lauding, or just plain paying Jason and Vince for giving Activision the most successful entertainment product ever offered to the public, last month Activision hired lawyers to conduct a pretextual ‘investigation’ into unstated and unsubstantiated charges of ‘insubordination’ and ‘breach of fiduciary duty,’ which then became the grounds for their termination on Monday, March 1st.

We’ll see what will happen in the coming weeks as more information comes to light about exactly what’s going on.  Activision has not commented on the matter and is moving ahead with the Call of Duty franchise and its new internal business unit devoted to developing the Call of Duty brand.  Three more Call of Duty games are planned and apparently Infinity Ward is not mentioned as being one of the developers involved according to current reports.  Stay tuned for this one!

Get a good glimpse of Halo Reach Multiplayer in the new video!  Check it!  Flying Spartans!

Finally, Ubisofts new Splinter Cell: Conviction will be arriving next month in a bundle after being delayed.  The box will contain a standard black Xbox 360 with a 250GB hard drive, 2 controllers and a copy of the game.  The price will be $399.  I guess Splinter Cell isn’t a big enough game franchise to warrant its own limited edition console like Infinity Wards Modern Warfare 2.  I suppose we’ll have to wait for Halo Reach before getting the largest hard drive with a limited console.

Getting a nice Splinter Cell bundle with a plain console is great and everything, but when is Microsoft going to let the rest of us buy a separate 250GB hard drive for our perfectly working Xbox 360’s?  I need to replace my 20Gig because the darn thing is full and I want more storage than a 120Gig.  Well?  Last I heard Microsoft has no plans on releasing a 250GB hard drive as a stand alone unit as of yet.  Halo fans must freakin’ wait.

Dude’s Top 5 Game Picks for the month of March.  These are must have games!

Enjoy the journey as Halo lives on for the past 10 years or so.  This video evokes some memories!