Modern Warfare Lead Dev Leaves Infinity Ward

[SilentHunter7]

Despite what you may think of The Devil Mr. Kotick, he's not stupid. Fucking with the studio which made one of the biggest selling video games without good reason isn't likely. Kotick's evil, but it's unlikely he'd put his money in jeopardy unless he was damage controlling from a potentially worse scenario.

Ain't that the truth. The man wouldn't know how to make a good game if his life depended on it, but he's a hell of a business man. I can't wait for an official statement to see just what the hell he was thinking. Though I'm probably waiting in vain, because the most we're likely to ever hear is "Executives X and Y have been let go from their employment at Infinity Ward due to generic excuse Z. Activision will not comment on the specifics at this time."

 

[Captain Pancake]

Night of the long knives? Dammit, Funk, don't remind me of Nazi history! I have a tough enough time learning from the literal wicked witch of the west, I just wish to forget about it outside of school.

Besides that, ooh! this is interesting news, I hadn't heard of this before.

 

[Jared]

Just makes you wonder what is going down...

 

[Jonny49]

Well...considering that Infinity Wards next game isn't Call of Duty related, it's not crazy to assume that because they're developing a new franchise, certain members of the IW team are deemed "expendable" in the eyes of the bosses.

 

[CheckD3]

If this rumor is true, than in the original thread I called it, suggesting that IW was trying to split from Activision, which while not 100% true, can we call working on new publishing contracts starting to split from them?

 

[DonJavo]

..."Look what I found when I was doing your laundry. It's a beret. You've been seeing that Ubisoft whore again! GET OUT."

That just wins. I almost never laugh at comments on a thread, maybe a chuckle, but this one got me good. Funny stuff.

As for this crazy story--I have no idea what to make of it. It sounds like some crazy shady conspiracy cover up plot mixed in with corporate mis-steps. I don't think I have heard of bouncer type guys ever showing up to a company to fire people unless those fired where acting violently. Violence has not been reported thus far.

Reading this story makes me think that Infinity Ward, or a group of employees from I.W., was getting ready to jump ship and try and branch out else where. I.W. has always seemed unwilling to want to do the same stuff if it is not challenging them with new problems and creative flexibility. Yeah they have done war to death, but they seem to always want to put more stuff in their games with each new iteration. Maybe they saw their creative juices being channeled too much into one specific thing and I.W. saw this as threatening to what they love doing.

Heck, what do I know though? Maybe these guys just feel like riding in gold-plated dirigibles for the rest of their lives and felt going out in a dark unknown fashion would be a fitting exit.

 

[ddq5]

Uh i take offence to that. Montreal people don't wear berets. They just speak with dirty french. and smoke a lot. Berets are for the french sir.

Yes indeed, berets are for the French, like the very French Ubisoft with headquarters in Montreuil-sous-Bois, France. While they do have a Montreal HQ that worked on a bunch of their big games like the AssCreeds, their main base of operations is, in fact, in France.

 

[aaronmcc]

kotick must REALLY want that gold toilet in his bathroom

 

[Asehujiko]

Since you Godwined this subject already, I think that the second gulf war might be a better analogue. One power hungry and egoistical power flexing is muscles against a weaker but no less a dickhead former minion over a trivial slight.

 

[Pendragon9]

"Thanks for one of the best selling games of the year Infinity Ward, but you don't deserve any recognition so we're gonna fire you all and take the franchise for ourselves! HAHAHAH!"

^Activision.

 

[Low Key]

damn that sucks

but those two IW employees could have breach their agreement and was looking at another publisher that is not EA or Activision.

Maybe Square Enix,Capcom,Sega maybe even THQ could be their next publisher(or Sony??)

THQ or Sony (SECA), maybe, but I don't think IW would move to a Japanese publisher. Just a feeling.

 

[deth2munkies]

Lets hope this ends like the Westwood incident, with most of the dev leaving and reforming a new studio, with the sponsorship of a less evil developer.

I'd hope that would happen to Blizzard so I can buy their games again with a clean conscience xD
Then again there's probably already a lot of small Koticks running around on their executive floor he taught what the difference between a "bed and balance sheet" is.

I'm pretty sure the leadership of Activision-Blizzard would have a word with you on that.

The starry-eyed naive fan in me would like to believe it's because they tried to fix the crappy multiplayer issues and were shot down by the studio execs spawning a feud.

The more likely explanation is someone got greedy and stuff hit the fan.

 

[Octorok]

I don't know which scenario is more likely.
"No... NO! Stop it! Stop being so successful!"
or
"Look what I found when I was doing your laundry. It's a beret. You've been seeing that Ubisoft whore again! GET OUT."

Second one made me snort Sprite all over my keyboard, but totally worth it.