More Losses Predicted for Infinity Ward

[Andy Chalk]

More Losses Predicted for Infinity Ward

Industry analyst Michael Pachter blames the Infinity Ward [http://www.infinityward.com/] blowup for a recent slip in Activision's share value and predicts that as many as 20 more employees could leave the studio over the next few months.

Infinity Ward has been buffeted by a series of high-profile resignations since co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella were Modern Warfare 2 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98761-Rumor-Security-Locks-Down-Infinity-Ward-Ousts-Studio-Head-UPDATE].

In spite of Activision's [http://www.activision.com] best efforts to remain nonchalant, the mass exodus appears to be taking a toll: The company increased its guidance for the fiscal quarter yesterday, thanks in large part to the release of the Modern Warfare 2 map pack, but its share price nonetheless dropped by nearly two percent. Analyst Michael Pachter believes the loss of Activision's prize horse may be making investors nervous and he doesn't think the bleeding will stop anytime soon.

"We think that recent Activision share weakness has been compounded by additional departures at Infinity Ward which accelerated this week, and we expect another 10-20 employees to depart over the next few months," he said in an investors note.

He doesn't expect the situation to take have much of a long-term impact, however. "The company will likely replace the departed employees with skilled developers," he said, "and while increased competition may impact sales of future versions of Modern Warfare, we expect the company to put out a competitive product."

Source: GameSpot [http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6258419.html]


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[Rainboq]

Well, Activision has officially screwed itself

 

[Captain Pancake]

Here's hoping that through their sacrifice, Infinity Ward can take Activision down with them.

 

[Woodsey]

The hair on my arse could have predicted that (and I did the other day, along with 3 million others).

Mr. Pachter should look for a proper job.

 

[Iscin]

Activision / Blizzard still have plenty of games and won't be going down anytime soon. But it is nice at least that the developers in Infinity Ward are sticking together and leaving for more verdant fields.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Seems Activision wants itself to fail at marketing games and getting support from stockholders and people continuing to buy their games.

 

[hopeneverdies]

Do they really care at all? Does Activision even like putting out a product?

 

[Sixties Spidey]

Bank on Michael Patcher to state the obvious all while being absolutely wrong.

 

[Gunner 51]

Oh Activision! Just when I thought your treatment of Infinity Ward couldn't get any more sadistic, it just did.

Plus the old members of Infinity Ward can still bite you in the arse with their lawsuit, and acting like this isn't helping your case either.

 

[Dorkmaster Flek]

Delicious. Unfortunately, Activision won't die and Bobby "Douchebag" Kotick won't lose his job and get kicked in the nuts by old ladies, but you can't have everything in life.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

*still awaits Treyarch's CoD7*

Although, now I'm hesitant to buy it, and have them destroy Treyarch next.

 

[Jared]

Well, Activision has officially screwed itself

Yeah, shot itself in the foot, thats for sure.

This is what happens when you go off the handles...your company goes Splat

 

[Rainboq]

*still awaits Treyarch's CoD7*

Although, now I'm hesitant to buy it, and have them destroy Treyarch next.

I certainty hope they don't, I know people who work there

 

[Stuntcrab]

Well im gonna miss call of duty but now I have RARE COPIES of games made by a company that went out of business

Advertisment: CALL OF DUTY HERE!! GET ONE!! RARE!I GOT CALL OF DUTY 1,2, FINEST HOUR AND MANY MORE1!!

 

[Therumancer]

Simply put the teams that make games basically are the games, with what is going on any game in the series from here on out will simply be slapping a franchise label onto something that will be fundementally an entirely differant product. I'm not a big shooter fan, but all I can say is "wow" and truthfully if this doesn't affect the bottom line of this product line I'll be pretty surprised.

THAT said the thing that bugs me about this in all the coverage I've seen is that Activision has done very little to explain their side of things. The last game informer pretty much claims that when they did the booting the justification was "you know what you did".

Of course being a big company I doubt Activision will ever explain itself adequetly, or apoligize if it's wrong. Honestly I think the world would be a much better place if a few companies had fallen to their knees and begged forgiveness after some epic mistakes.

Any way it goes, the new "Call Of Duty" games are liable to be under the same criticism as the new "Fallout" game. All claims of skilled developers being hired aside, I think it would take a lot of luck for them to turn out a new, but differant product the way Bethesda did, but even then the criticism will remain since it just won't be the same (and honestly I think Bethesda sort of admitted this, which is why the original Fallout team is by and large developing New Vegas). I think it was an uncanny thing for "Fallout 3" to succeed as well as it did, and I'll be fairly surprised if new CoD games do the same thing.

 

[Sebenko]

I might not like MW2, but you have to feel sorry for Infinity Ward.

They make a game (despite my opinions, that has to take at least some effort, right?) which sells "quite well", as it were, then end up just being buttfucked by Activision then thrown away.

 

[tendo82]

Michael Pachter as Carnac The Magnificent

A: "We think that recent Activision share weakness has been compounded by additional departures at Infinity Ward which accelerated this week, and we expect another 10-20 employees to depart over the next few months,"

Q: What's the most obvious assumption you can make from the IW debacle that still allows you to continue to call yourself a financial analyst and make over six figures a year?

 

[Delusibeta]

It's amusing how Activision is so despised, while its sister company Blizzard is still celebrated.

Anyway, as I said before, Infinity Ward is going down.

 

[GodKlown]

As long as Activision learned its lesson on this deal, good for them. I'd suggest a "no-competition" clause in future contracts for employees to reduce the odds of such a thing happening again to them. That would certainly keep people from jumping ship so quickly and starting up another studio through background deals. The whole situation stinks, and not exactly from Activision's end, either.
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm a little tired of hearing about MW2 anyway. It might be nice to get a break from hearing about that game if Activision ends up canning the entire project in the future and starting in a different direction. There are enough war-based FPS games on the market, I'd like to see a movement away from this over-used idea already.