modern-warfare-2-ghost posts

The drama at Activision Blizzard continues to grow. First the publisher fired the co-founders of Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward last month. Then a lawsuit was filed by those same co-founders against the company. Then a mass exodus of Infinity Ward team members began. This week another lawsuit was filed against the publisher by former and current members of Infinity Ward.

Now comes word of an unexpected departure from the publisher's executive ranks. A new filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission has revealed that Michael Griffith, the president and CEO of Activision Blizzard's Activision Publishing division has resigned his position (in fact he left on April 23). Griffith, who came on board in 2005 with the company, will remain as Vice-Chairman of Activision Blizzard. No reason was given in the filing for his departure but it does seem like his timing is a tad coincidental, at the very least.

Wow. What a week. First the rumors hit the internet that the two co-founders of Infinity Ward, Vince Zampella and Jason West, had been dismissed by the developer's owners Activision. Later in the week Activision confirmed those departures and also said in a separate document that Zampella and West had engaged in "breaches of contract and insubordination". Late on Wednesday, West and Zampella fired back with a lawsuit against Activision, claiming that the publisher booted them out just so the company wouldn't have to pay their contracted large bonuses for the sales success of Infinity Ward's latest first person shooter Modern Warfare 2. Activision quickly fired back with their own comment, calling West and Zampella's charges "meritless."

The latest wrinkle in this tale comes from the site that first revealed this story, G4TV.com. They claim to have received an internal memo from Activision which details what kind of documents the company is looking to acquire as they fight the lawsuit issued by West and Zampella. There's an interesting mention of Activision trying to find "Documents regarding West and Zampella's communications with Activision's competitors, including but not limited to Electronic Arts." It's clear that the publisher is trying to look for any kind of proof that West and Zampella were thinking about jumping ship to another deal. One thing is for sure; this is going to take a while to resolve itself.

DC Comics' Wildstorm division has been taking the lead on releasing a number of game-based comics lately including World of Warcraft, StarCraft, Prototype, Mirror's Edge, Gears of War and others. Now it looks like Wildstorm will be releasing a mini-series based on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The reveal comes from developer Infinity Ward's community manager Robert Bowling who posted the news on his Twitter account along with a link to the first issue's cover. The comic will be titled Modern Warfare 2: Ghost and will apparently be written and drawn by David Lapham. The mini-series will be six issues long but there's no word on when the first issue will be released (although we are betting a November start day to coincide with Modern Warfare 2's November ship date is likely.