As you may have already read this morning, the saga of former Infinity Ward honchos Vince Zampella and and Jason West versus Activision took yet another turn today with the announcement of the duo's new development company, Respawn Entertainment. Oh, and the company's partnership with Activision's chief rival, Electronic Arts.
In response to the news, a representative of Activision had the following to say to Destructoid:
“This agreement comes as no surprise to Activision given the myriad of improper activities detailed in the cross-complaint filed on Friday against Jason West and Vince Zampella. We look forward to continuing to work with Infinity Ward’s deep bench of proven talent on exciting new projects.”
Shockingly, it sounds like there's no love lost over the announcement. I will say that I appreciate the use of the word, "myriad." I've just always liked that one.
Nice compliment to everyone who's still at Infinity Ward, though. I guess that talent is pretty valuable to them, eh?
Conrad Zimmerman is Destructoid's News Editor and home to the busiest mustache in the gaming press. An amateur historian and pop culture fanatic, Conrad possesses a nearly limitless wealth of videogame factoids and a passion for the power of games to teach, inspire and entertain. He enjoys reading, writing and turning things which should be fun into work.
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Contest:
12:20 PM on 04.12.2010 | 
And what are these exciting new projects? more CoD games?! They need to get over themselves, it's practically the worst shooter game made. Deftly overhyped.
Although the formation of a new studio seems like it was planned well before the firings went down, considering how fast it happened. I'm starting to think Activision may actually have a bit of a point here. If they did have this stuff planned, Acti had every right to can them. If they didn't, then Acti is full of crap. Either way, Kotick is a dick. Bobby Kodick.
EA really is a crappy company in the way it deals with consumers as well as other business, and should be shut down.
I hope the courts slap the shit out of these guys.
Also I got 20 bucks that says infinity ward quits the moment there contract expires, any takers?
Pronunciation: \ˈmir-ē-əd\
Function: noun
Etymology: Greek myriad-, myrias, from myrioi countless, ten thousand
Date: 1555
1 : ten thousand
2 : a great number <a myriad of ideas>
"Bobby Kodick" good one! Can't believe I never thought of that before, haha.
That's no representation, that's Bobby Kotick souless eyes.
Screw Activision.
On the other hand, the new studio is in the better position to produce something fresh and original. The thing is, greater creative freedom = greater chance to produce Daikatana. It's a two edged sword. The situation, I mean.
While I do agree with you, unfortunately the numbers don't. There must be a fair share of hypocrites in this world since the game made a huge success and sold a lot.
On a side note, I think that 'Respawn' is the best gaming studio name I have ever heard. Brilliant. And so ironic considering the whole situation!
even if all the cool kids r hatin it
Halo is the one that isn't dogshit.
That statement has got to be a joke.... I'm sure by "new" they mean Modern Warfare 3, which will be an over-glorified map pack just like MW2 was. They are going to milk that cow till like many of their other games will become died out. I give it 3 years before CoD is mentioned in the same breath as Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk.
right because mw2 is such a wonderful game with a high quality standard compared to waw:) Bullshit.
Unless EA is retarded enough to believe those two guys alone made Modern Warfare. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
--The suit also claims that the two prevented "Activision from awarding additional compensation to [Infinity Ward] team members as a reward for the success of [Infinity Ward]-developed games, in order to make these employees easier to poach when West and Zampella executed their plans to leave the company and set up their own company." Last week, Infinity Ward lead designer Todd Alderman and lead software engineer Francesco Gigliotti both departed the company.--
the lead designer and lead software engineer split too...IW will probably cease to exist
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6257485.html?tag=latestheadlines%3Btitle%3B3
You can tell someone else for the most part was in charge of MW2, someone with an outside influence, perhaps even Treyarch itself helping with MW2. Hopefully we'll get to see more of this side of the conflict when the trial comes about.
lmfao!!!! You make treyarch sound like the god damn anti-christ!!! That's the biggest load of shit I've ever read! What's wrong with expanding a game with DLC as long as it's fairly priced? And mw2 didn't turn out that great so treyarch must of somehow been involved! WTF??? You don't actually believe that shit do you? Thank you for the laugh. I was having a crap day before I read your post:)
-Activision forces Infinity Ward to make Modern Warfare 2.
-Infinity Ward does not allow Activision to see its milestones on time. This infuriates Kotick.
-Infinity Ward hides the ‘Russian Mission’ where you kill civilians until it becomes so late that Activision cannot tell them to take it out without ruining the launch date for Modern Warfare 2 (which already had millions invested in the marketing and advertising side for the launch date).
-Infinity Ward begins to talk to other publishers in a breach of their contract. Apparently, Infinity Ward knew they were in trouble and were looking to bail out.
-The big risk is that when the founders of Infinity Ward left, they could poach the entire team. So Activision made the preemptive attempt to stop any poaching by cutting off the head of the company.
It has been extremely disappointing to see how this issue is being reported as a ‘little creative artist being stomped on by big ugly corporate giant’. West and Zampella are certainly millionaires. While it was PC gaming where Call of Duty found its initial success, the two of them turned against PC gaming (remember the ruckus of no dedicated servers for Modern Warfare 2?). I thought the stupid Russian mission was something Activision had put in as the dopey ‘big business guy’ trying to be creative. But it was West and Zampella who were the ones behind it. And the fact that they were trying to hide it until it couldn’t be taken out was definite grounds of insubordination. That Russian mission could have exploded into a ‘Hot Coffee’ situation and done huge damage to the Call of Duty franchise.
One thing I do not see anyone reporting is how Infinity Ward did not wish to make Modern Warfare 2 but Activision made them. Activision was correct to make them make the game as Modern Warfare 2 is a smashing success. But I suppose this isn’t being reported because it would show Activision had the correct judgment on that decision and that would ruin the template of ‘poor artists stamped on by big corporate giant’ of a story. It is also not being reported that West and Zampella have so much money now that they don’t even need a job. They are not like your typical employees. This, too, is not being said because it doesn’t fit the emotional template our little game journalists want to write.
Activision did help build Infinity Ward. They invested in the company. They funneled in the money. When someone invests in you, they have leverage over you. Period. It is looking like West and Zampella suffer from the ‘artist disease’ in thinking that they, alone, are cause of the success of Modern Warfare. They probably are so egotistical to think the marketing departments and sales departments are just parasites off of “their” genius.
In matters between an artist who is annoyed he cannot be ‘creative’ in any way, shape, or form to the business that pays his bills, I’ll always side with the business. The reason why is that the business, even ones that I do not consider ‘good businesses’ like Activision, have to live in reality. The artist,.as his profession demands, intentionally does not live in reality. West and Zampella had their PR dude call the Activision producer a ‘douche’ publically. The question isn’t why West and Zampella were terminated but why Activision waited so long to do so.
No, the spawning system is horrible in every game-type (minus S&D obviously) in every Call of Duty. Its especially bad in Domination, TD, and Ground War. I dont even play FFA because of Nuke Boosters.
Looking at my stats online, I have over 7 days of multiplayer playtime with the game. I have never played 7 whole days worth of any game, EVER. I long since got my moneys worth out of the game...and im still playing it. People talk about this game like it is Turok or something. Jesus fucking Christ, I have heard more bitching about this game than some of the worst reviewed games on Metacritic.