Posts Tagged ‘Infinity Ward’

The story keeps getting better as a new lawsuit is borne against Activision.  Just to keep things up to date.  Activision fired the president and CEO of the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 studio Infinity Ward claiming they were scheming against the company.  Jason West and Vince Zampella then sued Activision for $36 Million for wrongful termination.  Activision then responded in kind with a counter lawsuit.  Jason and Vince then set up a new game studio Respawn Entertainment around the corner from Infinity Ward with “seed” money from Electronic Arts after taking  a private jet ride North.  Top Infinity Ward employees then began heading for the door leaving Activision.  Who knows where they were headed.  Now, are we all up to date with this “Soap Mac Tavish” opera?

Last week Activision decided to pay its employees a small portion of their rightfully earned bonuses.  Activison had apparently only doled out $28 million of the $118 million dollar bonus pool accumulated from the last quarter of last year.  40 Infinity Ward employees have “opened fire” on Activision with a lawsuit of their own accusing the publisher of “breach of contract”, “breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing,” “unjust enrichment,” and “violation of the California labor code.”  The Infinity Ward employees also claim Activision is withholding $50 million in royalties to ensure the delivery of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 which has been confirmed as a game the team had been working on as a result of these lawsuits.  The employees at Infinity Ward claim Activision had withheld the bonuses and royalties agreed upon and was tantamount to “holding them hostage” so they would complete Modern Warfare 3.

Activision believes the lawsuit is without merit, and that they are to determine the amounts and schedules to deliver the bonus payments to its employees.  They are looking for judicial conformation that they are in the right.

Problems are brewing over at Infinity Ward.  The original developers for Call of Duty and the top selling Modern Warfare games are losing top design leads who made the fanchise what it was.

After the high profile ”sacking” last month of the Infinity Ward heads CEO Vince Zampella and President Jason West, more people have begun leaving on their own.  Infinity Ward lead designer Todd Alderman and lead software engineer Francesco Gigliotti have left according to their linked-in profiles.

Infinity ward could suffer as top tech people take their talents elsewhere.  The ”secret sauce” is vaporizing from the game studio as key people head for the door.  Game designers recognize that many things must “go right” before a game can become a hit, especially a hit as large as Modern Warfare 2.  Key people leaving could pose a huge problem for Activision, although they deny it.

Todd and Francesco joined Infinity Ward before Activision took over in 2003.  Todd Alderman leaving the property could be particularly devastating to the game maker as he led the design team for the multiplayer component of Modern Warfare 2.  Ouch!

Activision has stated before to reporters that there is plenty of unemployed talent these days and that they should have no problems filling vacant positions.

Yeah, right!

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!

The Gamestop in Virginia Beach on Shore Drive had over 100 people waiting in line for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Others in nearby areas reported having close to 400 for the midnight launch.  Modern Warfare 2 the biggest selling game in Gamestop history surpassed Grand Theft Auto IV by 1.1 million copies the first day.

Activision Blizzard reports a total of 4.7 million copies sold the first 24 hours raking in more than $310 million dollars just in the United States and the United Kingdom alone.  A huge success for Activision Blizzard as other game publishers and movie studios look on with enormous envy.  The first Modern Warfare game had sold 6 million copies in its first quarter and the second game in the series is expected to do even better.

Analysts say the game will sell in any “economic environment” especially since game sales overall have been down for 2009.  The original Call of Duty games appealed to the World War II crowd, but since Infinity Ward shifted gears updating the game series to modern times the Call of Duty games have sold through the roof.  Sales of this game are expected to be strong for the rest of the year through the holiday season.

The review scores for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 have also gone through the roof.  The games best attributes are its graphics and multiplayer component as well as its high energy gameplay.  On the downside game sites have complained the single player campaign is short and the story telling somewhat lacking.  Overall the game wins over its critics with stunning multiplayer combat and Special Ops modes of coop play.