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Reactions: Activision fires co-founders of Infinity Ward

Over the past 24 hours, the web has been aflame with rumors of Jason West and Vince Zampella’s departures from Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward. Few details are actually known at this time, but it has been confirmed through West and Zampella’s respective Linkedin profiles that they are no longer under the employ of Infinity Ward as of “March 2010.”

Activision failed to indicate who the employees were when it amended its annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Monday afternoon to acknowledge the development.

“The Company [Activision] is concluding an internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward,” read the filing. “This matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation. At present, the Company does not expect this matter to have a material impact on the Company.”

Citing an unnamed source, an as-of-yet unverified G4 report claims several weeks of “tense” interaction between the respected studio and its publisher lead up to the meeting where Infinity Ward president, game director, co-CCO, and CTO Jason West and co-founder and Infinity Ward CEO Vince Zampella were let go.

The Infinity Ward heads in question were no where to be seen after the meeting and a security force of “bouncer types” suddenly appeared on the studio’s Encino, California campus. Allegedly, Infinity Ward employees started to feel “freaked out” when the bouncers refused to say why they had shown up unannounced.

It is unclear exactly how West and Zampella breached their contracts or why tense relations between the developer and Activision eventually culminated in the security force’s occupation of IW’s campus. The usually vocal director of communication for the studio, Robert “FourZeroTwo” Bowling, had little to say through his Twitter account: “I should also say, while I appreciate all the calls, tweets, messages and hearing my ringtone a lot. They’re in vain–as I have no info.”

Whatever happened between Activision and the co-founders of Infinity Ward seems mighty shady at this point in time and only reinforces the publisher’s negative image. In the eyes of many gamers, this fiasco undoubtedly proves that Activision doesn’t care for or value individuals within the company or even respected development studios. Considering that Infinity Ward is rumored to have moved on from the Call of Duty franchise and Activision has already found replacement developers, the revered development studio and the “unique, new IP” they’re supposedly working on could be seen as disposable to the corporate giant. It is not known at this point in time how the events of the past couple days will affect future IW projects or Modern Warfare 2 DLC plans. All I know is that Jason West and Vince Zampella probably won’t have much trouble finding new jobs, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see several Infinity Ward veterans leave to be with their former bosses.

Author: Cody

Tags: activision, darth kotick, infinity ward, modern warfare 2