Activision Decapitates Infinity Ward

[Flabio]

Not a lot of hard info going around about this one yet, but it seems that Activision have removed the top bods at Infinity Ward for 'insubordination' and are now going to sue them.

http://kotaku.com/5483348/report-strange-things-are-afoot-at-infinity-ward-president-ousted

http://kotaku.com/5483412/deja-vu--surrounds-infinity-ward-rumors

http://kotaku.com/5483427/activision-cites-infinity-ward-insubordination

Not really something to take sides on yet, while it seems like a poor move by Activision there's always a chance that they were justified in doing so. We won't know until more info gets out.

[fishbowlhead]

More likely there having disagreements in how IW make there games, activision want them to churn out generic updates every 2 mins, IW want to push boundaries and concentrate on quality.

Just an educated guess there, who knows the top bods could of been skating around the head office naked, stoned of there boxers for all i know.

[abigsmurf]

The old nugget of claiming breach of contract so they don't have to pay compensation when they sack them.

This will get messy.

[Spatial]

Was reading this earlier on various sites and the bit where they've apparently got security guards there makes it sound pretty ominous.

It probably says in those articles, but there's a lot of rumour that Infinity Ward were getting bored of working on nothing but CoD games, but that Activision wanted them to keep churning them out and keep the money coming in (apparently IW were wanting to farm out MW3).

Would tie in with the 'insubordination' bit, however it's pretty crazy that you would do that to your staff over something like that in what's supposed to be a creative industry.

[Flabio]

Having security come in to escort sacked people off the premesis is pretty normal to be honest. They're there to make sure they take only their personal effects and don't walk off with the devkits etc...

I've seen it happen in a couple of places I've worked.

[Spatial]

That's probably naivety on my part then. I've never worked in a place / environment where it's happened to that degree, so I guess I'm very lucky.

[endo]

Just an educated guess there, who knows the top bods could of been skating around the head office naked, stoned of there boxers for all i know.

I'd like to think this is the real reason while they're being booted out.

[abigsmurf]

That's probably naivety on my part then. I've never worked in a place / environment where it's happened to that degree, so I guess I'm very lucky.

It's actually very good practice to escort someone from the building the second they're fired. There are lots of cases of people finding out they're fired by not being able to log into their PC and phoning the help desk.

You're firing someone with access to incredibly valuable work and who have passwords that give them a high level of access to servers. Fired people tend to be angry.

[Malc]

I have to say that I kind of expected something like this to happen, it's felt like Infinity Ward and Activision have been at each others throats since COD4, and it seemed something like this was kind of inevitable.

I do wonder if this will effect the quality of future IW games?

[briareos_kerensky]

I do wonder if this will effect the quality of future IW games?

I wonder how many people of the original staff will remain under IW/Activision after this.

[donpepperoni]

Maybe the IW guys were threatening to elope with their current/past work projects and set up a new dev studio; certainly sounds like Activision have sent in security to ensure nothing makes it off the premises.

Either way, I'm not really fussed. I haven't touched a CoD since number 3 and I have no intention of bothering with Modern Warfare <insert number here> at any time.

[Skull Commander]

I love how the internet has jumped all over this.

As a gamer my considered response is...

...MEH.

[Flabio]

As a game developer my interest is a little higher than meh, but I can see why most people wouldn't be bothered by it.

[Lebowski]

As a game developer my interest is a little higher than meh, but I can see why most people wouldn't be bothered by it.

As a gamer you should be bothered though as this directly effects the quality of games out of said studio. I cant understand why Activision keep hovering up all these devs and then cutting them to bits when things don't quite go there way.

[Skull Commander]

I know it's cool to hate Activision, but everyone is just asuming so far, and in reality it's between Activision and IW. Maybe IW were being assholes. Who knows?