This is great news! Now they can start up their own company and make games WITHOUT Activision ruining everything!
_Caboose_
02-03-2010, 11:16 AM
Fallout 3 "IW Edition" :D
Neo
02-03-2010, 11:16 AM
It doesn't have dedicated servers.
Tsar
02-03-2010, 11:23 AM
It was bound to happen:p
OmegaFenix
02-03-2010, 11:47 AM
If i was EA i would go after those two and give them alot if not anything they wanted.
Kyubi_ZA
02-03-2010, 12:12 PM
LOL.
This may mean No DLC for Modern Warfare 2 though :( Both Vince and Jason lead designers....
But great news. Screw you Bobby Kotick!
_Caboose_
02-03-2010, 01:35 PM
IF some other company does pick them up like EA they should make another shoot em up with a bonus stage "Kotick on the loose" xD
Tinman
02-03-2010, 01:39 PM
This is pretty cool news, now our beloved Blizzard just needs to break the shackles :D
Tsar
02-03-2010, 01:44 PM
This is pretty cool news, now our beloved Blizzard just needs to break the shackles :D
All these things will come to a end. People get greedy and the people who actually play and develop them get pissed and bugger off.
OmegaFenix
02-03-2010, 01:48 PM
This is pretty cool news, now our beloved Blizzard just needs to break the shackles :D
You think this could actually Happen?
Tank
02-03-2010, 02:16 PM
we can but only hope, i've been pretty negative of blizz since they joined up with acti/tard.
anyhow good on IW. so oom bob kotick behind the bs afterall then
GReeN_ORB
02-03-2010, 02:20 PM
Hmmmm, great personnel retention strategy from Activision. Fire the (seemingly) popular heads of one of their main development houses, and everything will obviously just continue as per normal business... Will be interested to see whether (if they are fired) they set up an independent studio, and if they do, whether staff will desert IW and join the independent firm.
If that should happen, expect to see the other publishers trying to buy the independent dev studio...
SpoOkie
02-03-2010, 03:58 PM
Blizzard is still a company on it's own.. In corporate structure it has nothing to do with Activision.
It's the BoD you have to talk about...
_Caboose_
04-03-2010, 07:49 AM
Former Infinity Ward heads Vince Zampella and Jason West are bringing a lawsuit against Activision for breach of contract and other claims, after Activision terminated their employment on March 1. The press release announcing the suit claims that Activision was scheduled to pay "substantial royalty payments," but fired them before the date of the payment.
"Instead of thanking, lauding, or just plain paying Jason and Vince for giving Activision the most successful entertainment product ever offered to the public," attorney Robert Schwartz said, "last month Activision hired lawyers to conduct a pretextual 'investigation' into unstated and unsubstantiated charges of 'insubordination' and 'breach of fiduciary duty,' which then became the grounds for their termination on Monday, March 1st."
In addition to compensation, the suit seeks to return the contractual rights Zampella and West previously had to the Modern Warfare brand.
If Vince and Jason win this. We could CoD returning to it's rightfull glory.
Suck my ass Kotick.
oltman
04-03-2010, 03:51 PM
this is quite interesting... the repercussions of this will echo through the whole gaming biz!
TheWaytoGame
04-03-2010, 08:27 PM
Bob Kotick can go crawl in a hole or something.
Infinity Ward will never be the same :/
TheWaytoGame
05-03-2010, 06:11 AM
There's an update with this.
Since Activision is fishing around for papers detailing that Zampella and West were trying to leave Activision, the former employee's lawyer has stated that "any suggestion that they were in talks with EA (or any other company) to leave or start their own team is known to Activision to be completely false and, therefore, an irresponsible comment for Activision to be making. They are fishing, and there are no fish in the sea."
When asked about what the contract between Activision and the ousted heads of IW, Schwartz said, "[West and Zampella] have a contract that spells out their rights to control future Modern Warfare games, after Modern Warfare 2."
Seriously, if this episode doesn't get people boycotting Activision's titles, what will?
We all have a very well developed opinion (a low one) of Kotick by now, and his views on gamers in general bears this out - he views us as nothing more than a market to be fleeced for as much as possible as quickly as possible.
If these two start up a new studio (and I'm sure they'll start it with a full staff too - wanna hedge bets on the remainder of IW jumping ship?) I'll be backing them all the way.
Blackhand
09-03-2010, 04:54 PM
If this all turns out to be true, I don't think I could be any more disgusted. There is no way I could possibly work, let alone deliver quality code in an environment like that. I hope Zampella and West sue the shit out of them, enough to start up their own studio (and bring back dedicated servers! Ok, I'll drop it now =) ).
Seriously though, every little tidbit I hear/read involving His Majesty Bobby Kotick, the easier it becomes to picture him as the anti-christ.
OmegaFenix
09-03-2010, 04:56 PM
Yet MW2 is one of the highest grossing games of all time. The Activision investors are not going to do diddily when he brings in the $$$.
Raven Gold
09-03-2010, 08:47 PM
Seriously, if this episode doesn't get people boycotting Activision's titles, what will?
It won't get enough people boycotting them to make a difference. I bet you that 99% of the people who would buy these games haven't even heard of this debacle yet.
shadowfox
10-03-2010, 08:00 AM
Bloggers of the world unite? :D
You'd be surprised by how many people are online these days ;)
Raven Gold
10-03-2010, 10:20 AM
Bloggers of the world unite? :D
You'd be surprised by how many people are online these days ;)
Yes, online. But how many are on the types of sites that would post this kind of topic? The internet is really big.
shadowfox
10-03-2010, 11:29 AM
Yes, online. But how many are on the types of sites that would post this kind of topic? The internet is really big.
There are thousands of sites - do a search in Google for Activision Infinity Ward Fallout and it will return 237,000 results. And even if only 10% of those are valid, you have 23,000+ sites talking about it. Each of those sites with its own horde of readers. Add to that Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Youtube and the news has the potential to reach millions in a very short space of time.
I can guarantee this topic exists on hundreds of gaming forums already.
[Google SA btw - with Google.com the number becomes even bigger]
Kyubi_ZA
06-04-2010, 10:55 PM
More Infinity Ward Members Depart
After the departures of Jason West and Vince Zampella last month comes even more departures. Lead software engineer Francesco Gigliotti and the Multiplayer lead Todd Alderman have both left the studio. They have both worked at the studio for 7 and 8 years and have been key in the Multiplayer and single player aspects of Infinity Ward's games. Only time will tell if more staff decide to departure from the company, however it is believe that they would lose their rights to unpaid royalties.
There are thousands of sites - do a search in Google for Activision Infinity Ward Fallout and it will return 237,000 results. And even if only 10% of those are valid, you have 23,000+ sites talking about it. Each of those sites with its own horde of readers. Add to that Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Youtube and the news has the potential to reach millions in a very short space of time.
I can guarantee this topic exists on hundreds of gaming forums already.
[Google SA btw - with Google.com the number becomes even bigger]
Yeah, well how do you explain how MW2 even got such success in the 1st place? Or AC2 that hasn't given in to the demands to remove there DRM, it's because 90% of the people who buy these games don't even pay attention. And 90% of those people won't even hear about this.
shadowfox
07-04-2010, 07:55 AM
Yeah, well how do you explain how MW2 even got such success in the 1st place? Or AC2 that hasn't given in to the demands to remove there DRM, it's because 90% of the people who buy these games don't even pay attention. And 90% of those people won't even hear about this.
1. The majority of sales happened on console - which also doesn't have DRM issues.
2. MW2 was released before the fallout.
Raven Gold
07-04-2010, 11:08 AM
I'm talking about the PC versions alone. MW2 sold more PC version than any of the previous games. Even after the outcry against the IWnet system. So the "internet" being a good place to stay informed is a very, very flawed theory. These companies are starting to exploit the idiots who will fall for any shiny TV or banner add and probably have never even heard of gaming forums.