Former members of Infinity Ward, and how they're doing a great service to gaming as a whole.....

Nomanslander

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Feb 21, 2009
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Anyone that has been watching the industry closely knows that one of the biggest problems we have is the control publishers have gained over their developers. Telling them what games to make, and in what orderly time, rejecting innovation by keeping things safe, and treating its talent as being expendable.

This has really put a damper on everything, and even though some might argue the talents of former IW members being overrated, one thing you can't deny is what they've done has really made an impression that might, well, might change things.

Reading the dozen or so articles on Kotaku, one paragraph that I really enjoying was a member of IW having this to say about Activision since the fiasco, "They're scared shitless." "They never saw this coming. They can't believe what's going on. At first they gave us some bullshit about moving up payments of all the money they owe us to sooner increments. That was when [designer] Todd [Alderman] and [engineer] Frank [Gigliotti] left. But with the announcement of Respawn and all the people leaving, they just got there heads in their hands."

Now, of course I might be a little too optimistic to think this, but usually when changes occur, they begin like as they have here. The importance of a good publishing team is to keep the developers on target and on track, but considering the industry today, they've become way too powerful and of course greedy.
 

Flack

Brushie Brushie Brushie
Mar 14, 2008
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I would like to see a situation with more creative control in developers hands. IMHO publishers should just provide the money and sit back and let their developers work. This is probably not ideal but hey, what do I know.
 

Booze Zombie

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I am happy about the whole thing, but I don't want to sound like "blargh, evil corparations got what was coming to 'em".

That said, I do enjoy the sound of these obviously talented guys just making their own games without having to walk up to a board of directors (or however it works) and going "is this okay".
 

Kouen

Yea, Furry. Deal With It!
Mar 23, 2010
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Well with the creation of the Respawn Studio hopefully EA who arnt much better than Activision will see the light (and very negative media about Activision) and let them do there thing on there own in there own time.
 

Daveman

has tits and is on fire
Jan 8, 2009
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I think it's funny how IW was initially formed as the developer wanted to move away from EA. Then they suddenly want to go back. I just think they're retarded. Nothing will change, just as nothing changed when IW was formed.
 

loremazd

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Dec 20, 2008
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I have to say the fact that they got a business plan and new company off the floor in a matter of like 2 weeks kinda gives credence on Activisions claim that they were fired because they were planning to leave the company while still working there. Then again that's just my opinion on the business side of things.
 

Cody211282

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Apr 25, 2009
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I would love to see developers have more control over the games they make, and I'm happy for the guys that left(not to mention anything that can scare Activision like that makes me happy). I hope they start working on something soon.
 

Agayek

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Oct 23, 2008
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Daveman said:
I think it's funny how IW was initially formed as the developer wanted to move away from EA. Then they suddenly want to go back. I just think they're retarded. Nothing will change, just as nothing changed when IW was formed.
The thing is, though, that EA has changed (or at least it appears to have). It may just be because of the comparison to Activision's Snidely Whiplash, but they're much, much less "evil" now than they were before IW was formed. I'm not a developer working with either company, so I can't honestly say definitively either way, but from an outsider's perspective, EA seems much better compared to back then.
 

Milney

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Feb 17, 2010
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Great service? HA!

The fact is, Infinity Ward have always been owned by Activision - and not just through the power of a publisher. As in actual financial ownership.

Now, if Infinity Ward were actually an independent developer who had simply signed a publishing agreement with Activision I might see them in a better light. Frankly at the moment, all I see are some individuals on an ego trip breaking thier contract and hoping the rabid "fanbois" will make thier new venture financially viable.
 

Nomanslander

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Milney said:
Great service? HA!

The fact is, Infinity Ward have always been owned by Activision - and not just through the power of a publisher. As in actual financial ownership.

Now, if Infinity Ward were actually an independent developer who had simply signed a publishing agreement with Activision I might see them in a better light. Frankly at the moment, all I see are some individuals on an ego trip breaking thier contract and hoping the rabid "fanbois" will make thier new venture financially viable.
The point isn't seeing them in a better light, it's true they're greedy themselves, what it's about is the power struggle that goes on between the two. Right now publisher seem to be the one's with all the power, they're the one's that need to be put in place and basically it's going to take an egotistical group of developers to do so, one's that are chuck full of pride thinking that they're the best in the field and deserve more.

Face it, a humble development team would have caved into demands and allowed Activision to ride them like mules all the way to the bank. It usually takes a group of assholes to make a difference.

That is until the game industry has it's own Heaven's Gate.
 

Beefjerky

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Sep 9, 2008
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In my opinion IW brought it all on themselves. Before the release of MW2 they were licking Activisions boots and saying that they were the best publisher they could have.

And now look what happened.
 

Nerdygamer89

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Dec 21, 2009
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This could very well be fantastic news for the gaming community as a whole. I could name 20 games off the top of my head that seemed rushed out the door by the publisher. Most of them even had genuinely unique ideas, but the development team just wasn't given enough time to fully tweak them to perfection.

Gaming is becoming like movies and music have before it. Homogenize and market to the lowest common denominator = guaranteed profit. Release enough cheaply made health regenerating, power armored, testosterone infused, gruff voiced, brown coffee filter graphic'd, explosion-fest space marine games and you have yourself quite the little monopoly.
 

Pimppeter2

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Nomanslander said:
Milney said:
Great service? HA!

The fact is, Infinity Ward have always been owned by Activision - and not just through the power of a publisher. As in actual financial ownership.

Now, if Infinity Ward were actually an independent developer who had simply signed a publishing agreement with Activision I might see them in a better light. Frankly at the moment, all I see are some individuals on an ego trip breaking thier contract and hoping the rabid "fanbois" will make thier new venture financially viable.
The point isn't seeing them in a better light, it's true they're greedy themselves, what it's about is the power struggle that goes on between the two. Right now publisher seem to be the one's with all the power, they're the one's that need to be put in place and basically it's going to take an egotistical group of developers to do so, one's that are chuck full of pride thinking that they're the best in the field and deserve more.

Face it, a humble development team would have caved into demands and allowed Activision to ride them like mules all the way to the bank. It usually takes a group of assholes to make a difference.

That is until the game industry has it's own Heaven's Gate.
Regardless, the publishers demanding that they make games certain ways, and in what orderly time, rejecting innovation by keeping things safe, is actually a good thing.

Look at Bethesda, it obviously didn't care what type of games it was publishing, so it let studios get away with titles like Wet and Rogue Warrior, which, for a lack of words, sucks balls.

SO no, I don't think Activision is to blame in that respect. Are they blameless in this situation? No. But it seems more like the devs are going loco because they made a popular game. A popular game that was made on Activision's funding.
 

Sephychu

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Dec 13, 2009
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Flack said:
I would like to see a situation with more creative control in developers hands. IMHO publishers should just provide the money and sit back and let their developers work. This is probably not ideal but hey, what do I know.
Except if the game sucks they don't get return on their investments. In fact, even if it's awesome but doesn't sell they don't get return.
 

DigitalSushi

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Dec 24, 2008
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Nomanslander said:
Anyone that has been watching the industry closely knows that one of the biggest problems we have is the control publishers have gained over their developers. Telling them what games to make, and in what orderly time, rejecting innovation by keeping things safe, and treating its talent as being expendable.
The problem with IW is that its actually owned by Activsion, its how they were made, with Activision money. Activision weren't just publishing their games, they owned the company outright, its a bit like us working for McDonalds and wondering why they keep asking us to flip burgers.
 

Akirai

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piscian said:
Here's how I think it should work. Publisher gives studio X amount of money. Publisher has a right to a due date and a Rating and the right to follow progress. That's it end of story. If the Developer falls behind schedule without reasonable cause then legal action can be taken.
Yes because all developers, all publishers and all game projects are the same and thus, all relationships can be laid out by simple basic rules.
(No.)

The control a publisher may hold over a project can be extremely high. For example, Dragon Quest is a flagship product for Square Enix who both finance the big budget title and started the long running franchise: because of this it's reasonable for them to always maintain control in practically all fields of development done the developer Level 5.
The control a publisher may hold over a project can be extremely low as well. For example, Flower is a minor, standalone product for Sony who only published this title to bolster their reputation as innovative, though the original idea cam from thatgamecompany (the developer): because of this, it is unreasonable for them to hold any control except for finance and marketing.
The latter though, is a rarity. Too little control by producers often leads to terrible time management and a game with too many ideas and too little focus. Too much control leads to a situation where ideas on creative IPs are handed down by essentially, marketing, management and financial experts. Aside from the degeneration it causes in the industry as art, that's just shit to work under since they normally don't have any feel for workfloor concerns.

As for Activision/Infinity Ward, on the outset the measure of control Activision should exert on Ward seems low. Ward has consistently released high profile, critically acclaimed games and started the franchise. They also the proprietary engine. Most importantly, when other development teams take a crack at the franchise (I'm eying you treyarch) they consistently sell less and receive a worse rating.
The only basis I can find for Activision to hold firm control over the creative direction of the franchise, is because it's both flagship and big budget. I don't find those very convincing for the high degree of control they (seemed to) hold.
On moral ground, Infinity Ward is in the right. On political ground, they rock. Stick it to the man! But on judicial grounds, they're probably gonna get fucked. That's life and I just hope they survive the rough and tumble to one up Activision.