infinty-ward posts

As expected, the countdown clock on the Findmakarov.com web site was for a project that was Call of Duty related. However it wasn't an official Activision marketing effort but a fan made live action short film that's based on the Modern Warfare off-shoot of the first person shooter franchise.

The footage is pretty remarkable, as it replicates scenes and characters from the Infinity Ward-developed games. However it's still not clear what the short is supposed to be for. Is it just a stand alone video or a trailer for something more? Hopefully we will learn more about this impressive effort soon.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is known for giving out opinions and quotes that can ruffle some feathers and hurt some feelings. In a new interview for Edge magazine, Kotick is at it again. In an portion of the interview on the Edge web site. Kotick slams the way Electronic Arts handles its internal developers, saying, "EA will buy a developer and then it will become 'EA Florida', 'EA Vancouver', 'EA New Jersey', whatever. We always looked and said, 'You know what? What we like about a developer is that they have a culture, they have an independent vision and that's what makes them so successful.'" To be fair to EA, they have in fact been renaming developers so they have unique designations (Visceral Games, Danger Close, etc).

Eurogamer has reported on other excerpts from the Kotick interview where he slams Tim Schafer's Double Fine studio. Activision once held the rights to publish the console-only game Brutal Legend and in his one meeting about the the game he was told by his execs, "He's late, he's missed every milestone, he's overspent the budget and it doesn't seem like a good game. We're going to cancel it." He also slams the founders of Infinity Ward, Vince Zampella and Jason West, once again. The creators of the Call of Duty franchise were fired back in March. Kotick claims, "We're a public company, we've got ethics obligations, and the things they did were... I would go to jail if I did them."

Oh boy. This could get ugly. G4TV.com's web site, citing unnamed sources, is reporting that odd things are indeed afoot at Call of Duty's main creator Infinity Ward. Two of the developer's founders, Vince Zampella and Jason West, may have been fired by the developer's owners Activision. G4TV.com reports that the developer's offices were visited Monday by what were called "bouncers" that seem to be acting like security. Zampella and West have gone missing from the offices. Later West's Facebook and Twitter accounts seem to indicate he was fired.

The story also points to Activision's filing of its annual report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The report claims there have been "breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward." The report adds Activision expects "departure of key personnel and litigation" as a result. There's no word at all on the specific but you can bet this is not over by a long shot.

Zampella and West, along with a number of other former team members at 2015 who worked on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, formed Infinity Ward in 2001. The developer created the first Call of Duty game for the PC in 2003 which is also when Activision bought the company. Since then Infinity Ward has been the lead developer on the Call of Duty franchise, including its move from a WWII franchise into the modern day with the Modern Warfare series. Activision claims the entire Call of Duty series has sold a total of 55 million units since it's beginnings.

Update: Vince Zampella's LinkedIn profile now indicates that he has also officially departed Infinity Ward.