Infinity Ward Loses Top Two Executives In Dispute With Activision
The internet was abuzz today with news pertaining a creative dispute between Infinity Ward and Activision. Yesterday there was vague news that Activision had fired Jason West and Vince Zampella, Infinity Ward’s top two executives. The news first broke in a financial filing that said that the two had been dismissed due to insubordination and breach of contract.
 
Kotaku did some sleuthing and appears that the the relationship between the two parties was at a breaking point. They spoke to an anonymous source who told them that Infinity Ward had a problem with different studios handling the Call of Duty franchise. In an effort to try and meet the developer half way Activision signed an exclusive contract with the studio, which gave them the sole rights to develop Call of Duty games set in modern times.
 
Infinity Ward still wasn’t completely happy with the situation, and things began to get a little tense in their communication with Activision. Things took a turn for the worse when Infinity Ward (which is largely viewed as a one game studio due to their success with Modern Warfare) decided that they wanted to make a new IP, possibly being set in the future. Activision vetoed the idea and their relationship with IW further deteriorated.
 
Now shots have been fired (figure of speech) and Activision has terminated Jason West and Vince Zampella, two executives who have spent a great deal of time with Infinity Ward. Reports also indicate that Activision has also officially announced that they will be bringing on a third studio to develop Call of Duty games.
 
We’ll just have to wait until the next iteration of Modern Warfare to see how this pans out. I hope it doesn’t end up affecting the product, because that would just be lousy for everyone involved. Well maybe not for Activision, they’ll probably sell a gazillion copies of the next Modern Warfare game regardless of who develops it.
