More Infinity Ward employees are Oscar Mike!

Bobby Miller 13 Apr, 2010 at 3:34pm ET Article published in Gaming

It seems that diplomacy is failing in Infinity Ward’s camp. IGN is reporting that more key staff members are leaving the company, continuing a trend that started when Infinity Ward’s CEO Vince Zampella and CTO Jason West were fired by Activision last month; the exodus of talent may indicate that Infinity Ward’s reign over console FPS titles may be coming to an end.

Recent reports state that Infinity Ward has recently lost three more key talents. Programmer Jon Shiring confirmed on his Twitter account last night that he was resigning after nearly six years of work with IW; Mackey McCandlish, Lead Designer, has walked after eight years with IW; and Senior Animator Bruce Ferriz also confirmed with IGN that he has left the company.

The three resignations join not only Vince and Jason, but also Lead Software Engineer Francesco Gigliotti and Lead Designer Todd Alderman, both of whom left earlier this month. This paints a harsh picture of Infinity Ward, as the majority of these staff losses are long-time employees and high level workers–a strange trend for a company that is riding the wave of two of the most popular console shooters of all time.

Something is definitely shaking up Infinity Ward. Possibly due to Activision’s handling of Vince and Jason’s termination, many workers seem to be displaying their disapproval by making the walk. Only time will tell if the key departures will compromise the quality of future titles from IW. With word flying around that Modern Warfare 3 is already in pre-production, that game may serve as the benchmark of whether or not IW still has it in them to create a classic FPS experience without the assistance of these many talented workers.

Comments

13 Apr 2010 ~ 3:42pm Gate28

...that game may serve as the benchmark of whether or not IW still has it in them to create a classic FPS experience without the assistance of these many talented workers.

They don't as showcased by the unbalanced and easily exploitable Modern Warfare 2. Activision has shown that they are able to just shut down a successful developer before, and I think that Infinity Ward is next to go.
13 Apr 2010 ~ 3:46pm UPSLynx I would be scared to death if I worked for a company that was under Activision's wing.
13 Apr 2010 ~ 4:08pm coldalarm And people wonder why I'm (sometimes) vocal about my dislike of Activision.
I honestly think Bobby Kotick is going to do some serious damage to the gaming industry. He's flooded the rythmn music market with peripherals and barely improved games, he exploited the FPS market shamelessly with the Call of Duty series (even going so far as to increase the price of MW2, which at respectable retailers is one of the most expensive non-collector's edition PC games you can buy) and his techniques are rubbing off on other departments/companies (Starcraft 2 I believe has been announced to have a higher-than-average RRP). Wasn't the MW2 map pack also a ridiculously high price for what it was?
Yes, I understand and respect that Activision Blizzard are a company and, at the end of the day, have to bring in a profit, but you also have to show your consumers respect. Kotick's reputation as one of the most disliked people in gaming is not undeserved - If you come out and say that you will charge as much as you like for a game or milk a franchise for all its worth in the ways he has done, then you deserve everything that's going to come after.
Whilst I don't like CoD, I do have respect for IW as developers and as such I direct all my dislike of the series at Activision Blizzard/Kotick instead.
I wish the staff who've left IW the best of luck in the future, and with IW on their resumÃ© they're going to get snapped up near-instantly. I wouldn't be surprised if we have a similar post-Interplay situation, where some stay with an existing company (BioWare, but this time they'd stay at IW) and the most of the others form another (Obsidian Entertainment, but in this we're talking Respawn)
13 Apr 2010 ~ 6:15pm Thrax Bobby Kotick can FOAD.
13 Apr 2010 ~ 7:14pm UPSLynx I agree, Kotick has not, and will not be good for the gaming industry.
13 Apr 2010 ~ 8:50pm Bandrik An interesting development. Sad it came to this, but I'm glad there's people at IW that have the guts to see the writing on the wall and walk. Good for them.
13 Apr 2010 ~ 9:02pm GooD Seems like the 2 creators of IW created a new company : Respawn Entertainement

Maybe those guys will join their new crusade I Hope so !
14 Apr 2010 ~ 5:34am Tim A local Blockbuster had a deal on renting MW2 - $17 for an entire month, so I got it and played it for a month. It was okay. I used the L86 LSW machine gun the most. When the month was up I turned in the rental. I think I was about level 19 or so at that time.
14 Apr 2010 ~ 5:57am Snarkasm Cool story, bro.
16 Apr 2010 ~ 5:15am siruspernot I've been following the series Call of Duty since CoD3. When CoD4 came out me and my xbox live buddies spent ages playing that game. Out of the 8 million registered players on CoD4 I'm ranked 10240 in the world for kills as of yesterday with 135k. I also bought and played World at War and own two copies of MW2 (mistake). the reason I spent so much time playing CoD4 is the game was so well balanced, so tuned, so perfect that if you put in the time and heart you could master it and your environment and become a legend. Millions of fans, myself included, expected MW2 to be the grail of FPS games adding improvements over cod4 and adding onto the greatest competitive FPS ever created. We were all let down by the brand. During this whole lawsuit/firings thing it was said that IW didn't even want to build MW2 but instead had dreams for a new IP. Activision insisted and there was no time for a public beta.

Granted a room of even 500 testers could never find all the cheats that a million little cheating a******* could find, it still shows a lack of commitment and effort on Activisions behalf. As it was mentioned the Guitar Hero franchise has suffered oversaturation. I'm going to go ahead and call it now THERE WILL NOT BE ANOTHER GREAT CALL OF DUTY GAME. Treyarch just doesn't have it's finger on the pulse of the cod community and who knows what will happen to IW.

Now, Respawn is going to be working on the next Medal of Honor franchise release and it's said they will be combining aspects learned from modern warfare and previous MoH titles. If there is to be another great FPS that will give the truly competitive among us something to strive for, it will be this. Until then, I'm going to go back to climbing the leaderboards on the original modern warfare and save MW2 for those days when I'm in the mood to be cheated or camped.
16 Apr 2010 ~ 9:22am Gate28 I think World At War was the best CoD game of the franchise, I think that if Treyarch keeps with the series, it will still keep going good.
19 Apr 2010 ~ 3:37am Shorty World At War felt rushed. IP is IP. Activision enjoy feeding sequels & DLC because that's easy money. Interested to see what respawn do next. Another MoH? Do we actually need another one?

How about the guys create a new exciting game (like futuremark did) or is that too mch to ask?!
19 Apr 2010 ~ 11:21am Bandrik

Shorty wrote:

How about the guys create a new exciting game (like futuremark did) or is that too mch to ask?!

I sure hope so. A new game probably won't sell as well as an established game just because it's not instantly recognizable (like Halo, CoD, etc). But I do argue that having the flexibility that new IP brings will probably make a better or more original game.

The thing I really liked about the Modern Warfare games was the campaign modes felt "big". While short, I felt like I was in the middle of a big-budget action movie, and the consequences of failure felt huge. Plus, the multiplayer was surprisingly fun due to the idea of perks and killstreak awards - mixed things up a lot more than typical Halo-esque "just kill them over and over lol" modes that get stale fast.
19 Apr 2010 ~ 11:26am Shorty

Bandrik wrote:

A new game probably won't sell as well as an established game just because it's not instantly recognizable (like Halo, CoD, etc)

You see I would have said that a few years ago but respawn do have a pedigree that means they can use their "creators of the massive selling Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2" etc...

.. and lets not forget Arkham Asylum sold by the bucket load from a basically unknown developer...

The gaming world is changing. Gamers are getting smarter than ever
19 Apr 2010 ~ 11:43am Bandrik

Shorty wrote:

You see I would have said that a few years ago but respawn do have a pedigree that means they can use their "creators of the massive selling Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2" etc...

.. and lets not forget Arkham Asylum sold by the bucket load from a basically unknown developer...

The gaming world is changing. Gamers are getting smarter than ever

I generally agree with you on your overall point. And for that I'm pretty damn happy about it all. It's nice gamers will look for new things like Shattered Horizon and not just Halo: Yet Another Bland Sci-fi Shooter Under the Glossy Coat of Shaders.

Though I will note that Arkham Asylum is still known IP. I mean, it's freakin' Batman during the series' heyday from Batman Begins and Dark Knight. Though it's still nice to have a good Batman game, finally.
19 Apr 2010 ~ 11:49am coldalarm But, see, Batman: AA would have (initially) been carried by the franchise alone. Franchised titles, whether good nor bad, tend to sell quite well anyways but with Batman: AA, it got extra popularity because it was so good in the game play department. You had people who wouldn't play a Batman game buying it and enjoying it, for example.

Modern Warfare 2 was destined to be a great seller regardless of the developer. If MW 1 + 2 were non-CoD games I don't think they'd have sold like they did. It's not gamers are getting smarter, it's standard marketing. Gamers are familiar with certain franchises (Sonic, Mario, Call of Duty, for example) and it's those names alone that will get the bulk of the sales. CoD4: MW did a lot for the brand's penetrative capabilities and (from what I've heard) it was quite a good game.

Why did Halo 2 sell so well? Because almost every Xbox owner had Halo, and it packaged a franchise with multiplayer that took advantage of Live. When Halo came out, it was from Bungie who hadn't really released anything of note (Oni and Marathon was their back catalogue at the time, I believe).
19 Apr 2010 ~ 1:09pm Bandrik

coldalarm wrote:

Franchised titles, whether good nor bad, tend to sell quite well anyways

Very good point. Hell, I was talking to a friend of mine who worked on the Wii version of the Iron Man 2 game. They weren't able to include a lot of features they wanted so the game will only be mediocre with only basic run 'n gun gameplay. But they still fully expect the game to sell decently well compared to its budget, considering the massively popular Iron Man IP.
19 Apr 2010 ~ 1:22pm coldalarm Yep, it happens with most franchises.

What I generally see happen is these titles appear in the charts for a bit and then disappear, only to appear for Â£3-5 a pop after a year or two. I think... Generally parents buy them for their kids to shut them up over the holidays. They don't care (parents or kids) if the game play isn't great, they just care about playing as Spidey or (in the case of the parents) keeping the kids quiet.

You get the occasional outstanding title (Batman: AA, Spider-Man 2) but like you said, for the most part they're mediocre at best games. Keeps the development costs down and therefore maximizes the profit. As I said above, the kids really don't care if it plays like a baboon's rear as long as it's playable for them.

On the other hand, I think Batman's a bit of an odd one. Arkham Asylum isn't aimed at kids (PEGI 16 in the UK, second highest rating we have), but I would say that it was still carried a lot on just the weight of being a Batman game. Some parents will have bought it for Little Timmy Pain-In-The-Rear, of course, yet I think it did so well partially because of its fairly superior game play.

If Activision got a turd and slapped Modern Warfare 3 on it, it'd still sell. That's how powerful branding can be.
20 Apr 2010 ~ 10:05am Shorty Sadly, yes, MW3 could be the next damn guitar hero franchise. Which is a real shame. The original MW had such a novel way to break out of the World War time period and it was needed. The 2nd while not as good is still bloody good fun. If IW were doing MW3 (with the original team) then perhaps it could sustain. Shame.