Activision smacks down Infinity Ward

[Toastburner B]

What do you do to a company that developed one of the three games that earned 68% of your income last year (http://kotaku.com/5483798/guess-which-three-games-help-keep-activision-afloat)?

Well, if your Activision, apparently you fire the top people of Infinity Ward (http://kotaku.com/5483492/scandal-hits-call-of-duty-devs-what-we-know-%5Bupdate%5D?skyline=true&s=i), replace them with two people from out of studio (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/02/activision-confirms-infinity-ward-studio-heads-departures/), send "bouncer-types" to the studio, and in the process, freak out the staff, (http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/702911/UPDATE-Security-Appears-At-Infinity-Ward-Studio-Heads-Missing-Activision-Investigating-Insubordination.html) and hand off the franchise to yet another developer. (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/02/sledgehammer-games-working-on-call-of-duty-game/) Activision has done all this, citing "breach of contract" and "insubordination" (http://kotaku.com/5483427/activision-cites-infinity-ward-insubordination), according to a filing with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In one of the articles I linked to above, Actvision claims that they do not expect this move to "have a material impact on the Company." Yeah, I don't see how basically decapitating and crushing morale at a studio that delivered a billion dollar game to you could possibly have a effect on your bottom line.

And, because everyone loves Tim Schafer :

"Getting mad at Activision for this kind of thing is like getting mad at an ape for throwing feces," said Schafer. "It's just how the beast communicates."

[CABAL49]

So...Activision is trying to kill themselves?

[Geminex]

First King Quest, now this... Is it just me, or does Activision suddenly have a dickishness budget that they're desparately trying to fullfill?

[Krylo]

It's not a sudden thing.

Around the time EA stopped being total assholes, Activision decided it needed to pick up the slack.

[Azisien]

Insubordinate bastards wanted to quell the stagnating COD franchise (much as I enjoy MW2, MW3 would be overkill) and stop Treyarch from making another damn subpar COD game. Those prick executives wanted to make a new, original IP!

FUCK THEM!!!!

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Does this mean the death of COD? God I hope this means the death of COD.

[Ecks]

(much as I enjoy MW2, MW3 would be overkill)

But... but THEY HAVEN'T FINISHED THE GODDAMN STORY YET! I WANNA SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT DAMMIT!

WE STILL HAVE TO FUCK UP MOSCOW, AND SEE WHETHER OR NOT SOAP SURVIVES HIS STAB WOUND!

FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKK KKKKKKKKKKKKKK

Also, this behavior doesn't surprise me. Activision have been dicks since the Atari days. They wouldn't put their employees on a credit reel for some reason or other...

[Toastburner B]

Does this mean the death of COD? God I hope this means the death of COD.

Nope. Activision still has Treyarch doing the next Call of Duty game, an unspecificied developer handling the 2011 CoD, and Sledgehammer Games, a newly formed studio, is producing an "action-adventure" game, with the CoD branding.

Heck, Activision just announced a guy to "oversee the Call of Duty business unit".

All above information was gotten from here (http://kotaku.com/5484026/activisions-new-plans-for-call-of-duty-include-new-developer-new-genres).

tl:dr version: Nope. Activision is going to keep at Call of Duty until there is nothing left but a hole in the ground with liquid dead horse in it.

[Mirai Gen]

Does this mean the death of COD? God I hope this means the death of COD.

No, it means the death of good Call of Duty.

[krogothwolf]

Nope. Activision still has Treyarch doing the next Call of Duty game, an unspecificied developer handling the 2011 CoD, and Sledgehammer Games, a newly formed studio, is producing an "action-adventure" game, with the CoD branding.

Heck, Activision just announced a guy to "oversee the Call of Duty business unit".

All above information was gotten from here (http://kotaku.com/5484026/activisions-new-plans-for-call-of-duty-include-new-developer-new-genres).

tl:dr version: Nope. Activision is going to keep at Call of Duty until there is nothing left but a hole in the ground with liquid dead horse in it.

When's the Guitar Hero: CoD edition being released?

[Toastburner B]

When's the Guitar Hero: CoD edition being released?

It will be released as an expansion pack to WoW in 2012.

EDIT:

Actually, joking aside, it occurs to me that Activision has already axed a bunch of people at Neversoft (who make Guitar Hero) (http://kotaku.com/5469858/activision-takes-axe-to-guitar-heros-neversoft-shuts-down-luxoflux) and shut down RedOcatane (who makes the instruments for Guitar Hero) (http://kotaku.com/5470149/activision-shutters-guitar-hero-creators-gh-van-halen-developers-%5Bupdate%5D).

So, basically, all they have to do now is find someway to close/alienate Blizzard, and Activision will have effectively made all the studios who are keeping them afloat hate them.

[Mirai Gen]

One more reason not to buy COD or GH games!

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Some how this pleases me knowing that Sega isn't the worst company in the gaming market.

[Jagos]

Am I the only one that remembers that IW left EA for wanting to take Medal of Honor in a different direction? How odd that their new overlord happens to be of the same cloth...

Oh, and Bobby Kotick is a douche, a coward, and doesn't even play video games. The fact that he's running all of his series into the ground is just a foregone conclusion.

[Dauntasa]

Jesus Christ. Activision has Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and World of Warcraft. And they themselves have to do basically nothing except supply the studios responsible with money and leave them to work. That pretty much puts them at the top of the industry. And yet, for some reason, they've decided to fuck with that. What in hell could they be thinking? They've essentially been given three money printing machines, and told to just stick paper in one end and receive giant wads of cash at the other, but then decided that they have to bust them open and fiddle with the parts.

[Jagos]

Here's how Kotick works. He's the CEO. His entire philosophy is to have a game out every year and collect cash. The problem comes when they don't get the results needed. For example, look at Guitar Hero. If he could just give them two years to refine and make the games that much better, he'd probably make even MORE money, and people wouldn't be burnt out on the games as quickly.

Sadly, he's micromanaging because money waits for no one. Think of him as Gordon from Wall Street and you have him pegged to a T.

[Mirai Gen]

Jesus Christ. Activision has Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and World of Warcraft. And they themselves have to do basically nothing except supply the studios responsible with money and leave them to work. That pretty much puts them at the top of the industry. And yet, for some reason, they've decided to fuck with that. What in hell could they be thinking? They've essentially been given three money printing machines, and told to just stick paper in one end and receive giant wads of cash at the other, but then decided that they have to bust them open and fiddle with the parts.

Being completely fair, Guitar Hero's overblown market has dropped GH sales, World of Warcraft's being World of Warcraft has dropped subscriptions, and the fact that Call of Duty is split between Treyarch (WW2) and Infinity Ward (Modern Warfare) means their market's dropping too.

I can understand them being alarmed.

This, however, is the big cheese of Activision throwing a temper tantrum because he's not getting what he wants.

EDIT: Wait, the two lead devs left Visceral Games to make their own studio? Was this before or after Dante's Inferno?

EDIT EDIT: After. Wow. All is made suddenly clear.

[Meister]

So, basically, all they have to do now is find someway to close/alienate Blizzard, and Activision will have effectively made all the studios who are keeping them afloat hate them.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/activision-wow-could-become-obsolete

[Jagos]

...

Guys and girls, It's been nice knowing Activision.

[krogothwolf]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/activision-wow-could-become-obsolete

Seriously? They thikn Social and Casual games are going to render WoW obsolete? What the hell is Activision smoking?

Here's a nice little article into the workings of the Activision CEO

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/11/activision-if-we-cant-run-a-game-into-the-ground-we-dont-want-it.ars

Huzzah for greed!

[bluestarultor]

Seriously? They thikn Social and Casual games are going to render WoW obsolete? What the hell is Activision smoking?

Here's a nice little article into the workings of the Activision CEO

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/11/activision-if-we-cant-run-a-game-into-the-ground-we-dont-want-it.ars

Huzzah for greed!

Wow. Just wow.

[Mirai Gen]

Yeah that was the Penny Arcade "Exploit" comic. I had figured it was just a bad choice of words but, nope, its totally what he means.

Activision is indeed the new Acclaim.

[Toastburner B]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/activision-wow-could-become-obsolete

Oh, heavens, I can see it now:

"And the big surprise at E3 this was was Activision announcing that StarCraft II and Diablo 3 are now iPhone exclusives, and that Blizzard was going to develop a new game 'World of Facecraft', as a social game for Facebook.

Their spokesperson also claimed this had nothing to do with the mass resignations at Blizzard."

[Jagos]

Uhm, Blizzard? Mass resignations?

No, they'd just say "Screw the rules, we'll do our own thing"

Then not release anything until 2020.

[Toastburner B]

Uhm, Blizzard? Mass resignations?

No, they'd just say "Screw the rules, we'll do our own thing"

That's basically what the guys at Infinity Ward said.

Look how that turned out for them.

[Melfice]

That's basically what the guys at Infinity Ward said.

Look how that turned out for them.

Of course, they're still Blizzard, even if they can't use that name any more.
Any publisher with a strong IP would be happy to sign over the company to have Neo-Blizzard on-board.

Either way, as long as those guys stick together, they'll be pretty safe.

[Azisien]

One more reason not to buy COD or GH games!

Darn it, and here I was already prepared to not buy GH games based on the merit of them being GH games!

Stop giving me more reasons Activision! Wait...don't!


Edit: This actually gives me a reason to not buy shares in Activision-Blizzard. I was going to because I figured SCII will make it pop upwards, but you know what...fuck it, fuck it on principle.

[Toastburner B]

Of course, they're still Blizzard, even if they can't use that name any more.
Any publisher with a strong IP would be happy to sign over the company to have Neo-Blizzard on-board.

True...but Blizzard, maybe more than any video game studio in existence, is tied to their properties. While people "in the know" would be excited about a new IP from "The Studio Formerly Known as Blizzard", Joe Schmoe Consumer would likely buy Starcraft X, Diablo Y, or Warcraft Z from "Blizzard" by the truckload.

Truthfully though, I'm not worried about Blizzard. They are already the only studio in existence that can get away with having decade long development cycles on high profile games...and, yeah...World of Warcraft is pretty much the money printing machine that never stops.

Also, none of their big wigs called big wigs over at Activision "super douche" (http://kotaku.com/5080486/infinity-ward-guy-calls-activision-guy-super-douche), so, yeah, Blizzard is probably safe.

I should note that that article is from 2008...so, yeah...I can only imagine what people at Activision and Infinity Ward have been calling each other in private over the last few years.

[Funka Genocide]

I think in the modern corporate environment its damn near impossible to keep the goose laying the golden eggs in any real semblance of health longer than the time it takes for it's first egg to hit the market.

What I mean is, something that is both good and profitable will inevitably be eaten up by something bigger and marketed into the ground. It will never be good again.

It is rare to find a corporation that has both creative integrity and the finances necessary to fend off the big boys.

Of course good is subjective, but I'd wager that only Nintendo survives into the modern era largely intact.

[Jagos]

Nintendo had its bad moves long ago. They'll never live down the CDi.

Sony pulled a few crappers, namely its belief that the internet wouldn't take off and not charging for something similar to Live. Look where it's gotten them.

Microsoft... yeah, they're falling apart in other areas but with gaming, they're doing pretty well.

What Activision isn't doing is diversifying its portfolio. Instead, they're putting all of their eggs in a few baskets. That's anathema to good investing. And still Kotick can't back his products up if he doesn't even know how they play. It's not like Kotick is great at learning what makes a good company tick. It's not as if he could program for anything. He's basically like a parasite, using up the talent then crushing them under his thumb until they're no longer anything but a shell of their last form.

There's a few companies that could probably do well without this type of corporatism. But they're getting further and further between in the days of Big Gaming.

[Mirai Gen]

That's basically what the guys at Infinity Ward said.

Look how that turned out for them.
IIRC Blizzard/Activision merging was a pure monetary gain. Activision has absolutely no say in Blizzard's business.

They are sweating considering income is down but I don't think they can do anything about it.
Darn it, and here I was already prepared to not buy GH games based on the merit of them being GH games!

Stop giving me more reasons Activision! Wait...don't!
I did say more reason.

[Toastburner B]

IIRC Blizzard/Activision merging was a pure monetary gain. Activision has absolutely no say in Blizzard's business.

They are sweating considering income is down but I don't think they can do anything about it.

I'm not quite sure about that situation myself, but I'm sure it's a safe bet that Activision didn't can the heads of a productive and profitable studio without permission from Vivendi, first. So, really, while we've established that Activision is a bunch of greedy money-grubbers, Blizzard's fate might come down to whether or not the guys at Vivendi are a bunch of greedy-money grubbers.

Anyways...recently update:

The guys who got canned are suing Activision for unpaid royalties (http://kotaku.com/5485295/infinity-ward-founders-suing-activision-over-unpaid-royalties). They are also seeking the rights for the "Modern Warfare" brand.

[Mirai Gen]

As well they should on both counts. Just saw that via Adam Sessler's Twitter.

I mean nobody's surprised but Goddamn, son, Activision is pretty unquestionably in the wrong here, I'm hoping the law sees it that way.

[krogothwolf]

Well, it looks like they are in the wrong here. But since we don't actually know what the agreement the companies signed we have no idea if they actually are in the wrong or not. It'll be an interesting time for Activision though.

[Mirai Gen]

Well it isn't the most crazy thing in the world - a company doesn't like someone, but it can't fire them for just not sucking the company's cock all the time. So instead of firing them and allowing them to wring the company dry they just nitpick the hell out of them until the big stacks of paper write ups make a compelling case to be "Let go."

Then the guy returns armed with two big guns carrying legal pads and sues the company's pants off.

[Jagos]

That fight already occurred (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95248-Activision-Originally-Didnt-Want-Modern-Warfare). Now, we gotta see the fireworks (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98873-Activision-Responds-to-Infinity-Ward-Lawsuit-Is-Disappointed)

[Solid Snake]

Man, I just had a nightmare to the effect of Activision buying out Bioware.

Oh dear Lord please do not touch Bioware.

Electronic Arts owns Bioware? ...Okay. I'll tolerate that. Just not Activision. Anything but Activision.

[Azisien]

Man, I just had a nightmare to the effect of Activision buying out Bioware.

Oh dear Lord please do not touch Bioware.

Electronic Arts owns Bioware? ...Okay. I'll tolerate that. Just not Activision. Anything but Activision.

Yeah that shit's up there with flying and losing teeth. Don't think it's going to happen. Bioware is a profitable studio for EA, so Activision would have to buy EA. I don't think it can afford EA, and given all this, if I were working for EA I'd burn the HQ down before joining Activision.

[Jagos]

This story just gets better and better! (http://kotaku.com/5485733/ex+infinity-ward-heads-claim-orwellian-moves-by-activision)

I mean really? You're going to invoke the Spanish Inquisition on one of your best studios? Now I wanna be a publisher just to invoke skepticisim, pessimism, and fear to people that have made me close to $2 billion in sales...

[Mirai Gen]

"Activision conducted the investigation in a manner designed to maximize the inconvenience and anxiety it would cause West and Zampella," the lawsuit claims, alleging that the two were "interrogated for over six hours in a windowless conference room" and that other Infinity Ward employees were "brought…to tears" by Activision investigators.
Holy fuck.

Activision is seriously channeling the late Acclaim here. I am never buying anything related to them ever again.

[Toastburner B]

To be fair, a statement that was released with a lawsuit isn't likely to be the most unbiased source of information.

I find that I'm starting to become more neutral in this. It's all too easy to cheer on the supposedly innocent David as he casts stones at the seemingly evil, corporate Goliath (obviously, I did it myself). While it is true that Activision appears to the current incarnation of greed, from information I've gleaned from various sources, the ex-Infinity Ward guys were guilty of more than "not constantly sucking the company's cock".

Infinity Ward was pretty much actively advertising their hatred of Activision (not that their hatred kept them from taken 40 to 50 million dollars from Activision to develop Modern Warfare 2 (http://kotaku.com/5407981/how-much-did-it-cost-to-make-modern-warfare-2), which seems to put it as having one of the biggest video game budgets for a while...especially considering it only had a two year development cycle).

If you take a listen to the 03-02-2010 podcast over at Giantbomb.com, roughly 19:40 minutes in, Jeff Gerstmann, who of all people probably has not love for corporations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Gerstmann) basically lays down a scenario that puts this situation mainly on Infinity Ward's shoulders. In fact the first half hour or so of that podcast discusses the situation.

Basically, the more I learn about the two guys who got fired, the less inclined I am to believe that they are wholly innocent in this situation.

G4 has a pretty decent breakdown of the legalistics so far. (http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/703003/Talkabouts-Infinity-Ward--Activision-Take-It-To-The-Courts-.html)

What this is breaking down to is that there has to be two sides of this story. The ex-Infinity Ward guys are happily telling their side of the story to anyone who will listen (trying to get public perception on their side? Considering how people feel about Activision, that's about easy as getting wet by jumping into a lake) while Activision seems to be more than happy to wait to tell their side of the story in court. And really, you can't blame them for not bothering because the general reaction would be "Blah! Evil corporate empire blah!"

Am I saying that Activision isn't big and greedy? No. All I'm saying it is that, to my opinion now, it's starting to look like there is a chance the Infinity Ward guys might of deserved to get canned.

[Jagos]

You have to factor in EVERYTHING that Activision has done with their property in the last few years:

1) They didn't want to bring IW to the Modern Age. IW did. At great risk. Which came off as a great reward for all involved.

2) They signed a contract that allowed the two heads to basically go wherever they wanted with the franchise, not Activision.

3) I wasn't kidding about the "skepticism, pessimism, and fear" quote. Linkage (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/14/activision-ceo-talks-console-less-guitar-hero-turning-fear-into/)

4) Look at what Activision Kotick has done to Red Octane and their Guitar Hero franchise for "underperforming". They were used, then thrown away quicker than a two-bit hooker. I wish the imaging wasn't there... But damn! They really didn't have a chance to come back from the red!

5) Would you really want to work for the Devil (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/02/18/kotick-announces-activisions-half-million-dollar-indie-games-co?icid=sphere_blogsmith_inpage_joystiq), knowing he'd screw you over for not reading the fine print?

6) Given IW's history of having douchey Overlord who believe they can do better, I'd say their fielding new games to other publishers wasn't a breach of contract. They were trying to find new games to do. Something that is beyond the policy of Kotick.

[Mirai Gen]

In addition to what Jagos said, there's also the fact that it's a pretty standard affair - if a company wants to get rid of someone but can't, they'll just obsess over every little detail until they have a solid enough case to terminate them.

With how Activision has been acting for the last few years this is perfectly sounding like something they would do.

EDIT: More details at Joystiq if you're like me and hate Kotaku. (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/05/activision-infinity-ward-court-documents-detail-ex-studio-heads/) Apparently they're trying to dodge paying royalties to the two IW heads.

[ZevN47]

Honestly I think activision shot themselves in the foot... I mean infinity ward was started by people who left medal of honor right(EA)? so why can't they leave activision

[Jagos]

Contracts and money. Capitalism just fuckin' works.