Infinity Ward Loses Two More

[Andy Chalk]

Infinity Ward Loses Two More

Two more long-time employees of Infinity Ward [http://www.infinityward.com/] have left the studio, leaving the "deep bench" boasted of by Activision just a little bit shallower.

Fallout from the Infinity Ward-Activision blowup continues: Late yesterday it was revealed that programmer Jon Shiring, who had been with the studio for six years, and designer Mackey McCandlish, an eight-year veteran, had both said their farewells. "After almost 6 years at Infinity Ward, I resigned today," Shiring wrote on Twitter [http://twitter.com/iwslothy/status/12071014094]. "I'm incredibly proud of everything we accomplished and I'm going to miss everyone." McCandlish told the world of his departure via Facebook.

Their resignations comes a week after those of lead software engineer Francesco Gigliotti and design lead Todd Alderman, who had been at the studio seven and eight years respectively. A bit ironically, Activision said yesterday [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99881-Infinity-Ward-Heads-Found-New-Studio-UPDATED] that in spite of its legal tussles with fired IW founders Jason West and Vince Zampella, it "looks forward to continuing to work with Infinity Ward's deep bench of proven talent on exciting new projects." That bench is starting to look a little shorter than it used to.

Neither Shiring nor McCandlish commented on their plans for the future but it was also revealed yesterday that West and Zampella had launched a new EA-aligned venture called Respawn Entertainment [http://www.respawn.com/], which is now hiring. Coincidental timing? We shall see!

Source: GamesIndustry [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/two-more-studio-veterans-leave-infinity-ward]


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[Delusibeta]

Well, it seems that Infinity Ward is definitely going down. Let the recriminations begin.

 

[Distorted Stu]

The way this is going, in 5 years time there will be hundreds more game companies.

 

[ma55ter_fett]

I'm guessing they could get more money from EA

 

[JourneyThroughHell]

Well, goodbye Infinity Ward.
Thanks for eight years of high-quality gaming.
This is really making me sad.

 

[Cousin_IT]

Well hopefully Activision will learn for next time that if they have a suspicion of one of their developers thinking about defecting, the last thing they should do is give them no choice but to do so.

 

[saejox]

I'm guessing they could get more money from EA

not only more money also they get to keep IP rights of their new games too.

 

[scnj]

It'd be funny if pretty much all of Infinity Ward resigned and joined Respawn Entertainment.

 

[MR T3D]

*holding judgment to see if they still like their shitty IWnet*
if not, then I can and will sympathize with them, but if not, fuck 'em

 

[Armored Prayer]

Well I guess this is the end of Infinity Ward.

Well, goodbye Infinity Ward.
Thanks for eight years of high-quality gaming.
This is really making me sad.

You basically said what I was thinking. Thanks for everyrthing Infinity Ward, you will be deeply missed.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

They went from Activision to EA? Out of the fire and into the frying pan...

and into the rather warm and much more pleasant hands of EA. Activision is the Fire, there is nothing worse, and EA has actually been getting better. Free DLC and lack of retarded DRM proves that EA now understands that now is the time to love people, rather than treat them like criminals.

Calumon: Ubisoft and Activision are the new EA! ^^

 

[D_987]

Ubisoft and Activision are the new EA! ^^

How on earth are Ubisoft the new EA? The only thing they've done wrong is release some crappy PC DRM...they've made some of the best games in recent times (Assassins Creed 2, Splinter Cell : Conviction etc)

 

[Aptspire]

I'm pretty sure that IW is gonna close real soon

 

[Callex]

Maybe they're all just taking advantage of the recent press coverage? Their resignations are pretty much advertisements in themselves. Would they have really been re-hired so quickly (some at different companies, I've heard) if their resignations went under the radar?

They're highly employable right now. If any of them were thinking of a shifting their careers, now would be the time, right?

 

[hansari]

Neither Shiring nor McCandlish commented on their plans for the future but it was also revealed yesterday that West and Zampella had launched a new EA-aligned venture called Respawn Entertainment [http://www.respawn.com/], which is now hiring. Coincidental timing? We shall see!

Interestingly enough, this reminds me of Mad Men. Bear with me, cause there is a point to this....

You see Draper, realizing leadership in his agency is changing hands and heading in a new direction, decides to start his own ad agency. Knowing full well the hardships to be faced starting fresh, he begins covertly enlisting a handful of the creme of the crop of his former coworkers from his old workplace.

Only a handful. Even though all of them would gladly go pirate and run away with him.

Relevance?

I see the same thing happening here. The exception being that there isn't any "hardship" in starting fresh. Ward and Zampella have full backing of EA and supreme control/ownership of their new IP.

Under these conditions, you would think everyone would flee Infinity Ward to be with their champions. But we only see a few trickles of people jumping ship toward them. And its no coincidence that these people happen to only be high-level senior talent from Infinity Ward.

So it would seem, the only people to get screwed out of this deal are the low level generic types in the former studio. "Lead designer" is a big deal compared to "3d modeler #4".

Ending with MadMen, I leave you with this image of the employees who hear of this new agency only to realize they weren't "chosen". A look of anger, resentment, horror, all goes through at once.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Calumon: Ubisoft and Activision are the new EA! ^^

How on earth are Ubisoft the new EA? The only thing they've done wrong is release some crappy PC DRM...they've made some of the best games in recent times (Assassins Creed 2, Splinter Cell : Conviction etc)

Well you just answered the point, the DRM is GOD AWFUL. Some people still can't play the new Settlers game, and the PC community is (yet again) being treated like criminals. Splinter Cell: Conviction is going to be awesome to those with a 360, but hell annoying to those with PC.

Calumon: Uhmm... what he said.