Security Appears Unannounced At Infinity Ward, Studio Heads Missing, Staff "Freaked Out"

Patrick Klepek Writes:

Something's happening at Infinity Ward right now.

A source close to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 developer just informed me that a "bunch of bouncer-types" just showed up outside of the Infinity Ward offices unannounced. When approached by employees, the non-uniformed "bouncers" were unwilling to disclose why they were there.

[Bumpmapping]

That's what you get for making sh!tty games haha!

[blackmamba707]

really? on BFBC2 launch? coincidence!

riiiight, obvious PR stunt right there

[-Alpha]

Sounds a little scary, hope everything is okay.

Lots of rumors about "tension" between Acti and IW but hopefully everybody is safe. I just hope things change between IW and Activision. In terms of gaming, IW is doing terrible and I want change.

[aCHU]

dude NICE avatar man.. hitman? live free or die hard? LOL..
anyways yea i hope things are kool at infinity ward and hope things are fvckin terrible at Activision.. please IW leave tho's greedy b@stards.

[Saaking]

IW isn't completely innocent. They're the ones who made a broken game, not Activision. I could care less about either of them.

[DarkTower805]

Sounds to me like Acti is there to repo it's property (intellectual and physical) and make sure IW doesn't destroy, copy or hide anything from them.

[blue7xx7]

Today has definitely been an interesting day. Are the guys in charge of IW kidnapped or something I don't get what is going on. So they guys in charge of IW had meetings with Activision and have not been seen since then and now guys dressed in black are at IW okay this is just weird. Maybe they wanna go independent or it's just a publicity stunt.

[-Alpha]

It's Dexter Morgan. Blood splatter analyst in the morning, serial killer at night. A TV series that is a piece of art. Watch it and marvel at the beauty and intelligent brilliancy of the dark comedy/drama. It was either that or a picture of 3D Dot Game Hero lol.

On topic:

IW sure as hell screwed up their game and I don't exactly know what the tension is about but all I want is things to change with MW2. Truthfully, I've moved on with BC2, so whatever, I can care less now.

[DiffusionE]

If this is indeed a publicity stunt, and I'm half-sure it is, then IW/Activision have sunk to a whole new level lower than 'pathetic', attempting something like this on DICE's big night.

[Bigpappy]

Pretty funny stuff. Sounds like GOW3 preview. Maybe Jaffe let them borrow Kratos.

[Blaze929]

this is clearly a stupid publicity stunt -_-...seriously guys, just "think" for a second. How dumb does this article sound right now? REALLY, this is just pathetic and too sad.

[MurderMyDoll]

Publicity stunt leading to an announcement of the first round of DLC for MW2

[JsonHenry]

Sounds to me like the entire dev unit is going to be moved to a secure location where Activision can closer manage them.. since the managers were just let go.

[poindat]

...Obviously a publicity stunt/fake story. Pretty pathetic, IW, pretty pathetic... Just when I thought they couldn't get any lower.

"We just wanna make our games." LOL, that is Z-grade writing right there.

[40cal]

Some people got fired and most likely made some verbal threats and Activision gets some security involved. Great.

This would have been our drama for the day if not for the ApocalyPS3.

I survived-
12/31/1999

[zoks310]

Sounds like some of the IW higher ups will be applying for jobs soon.

[Time Traveler]

...Uh-oh.

[MiloGarret]

Comment removed by self.

[God_Of_Epicness]

I hope now they give us some free map packs. I'm tired of the same maps. I want 5 new maps! Or they can die and burn in hell.

[captain-obvious]

after thinking about it
this is just a PR / publicity stunt
why ??
well , BF:BC2 a far better game than MW2, is about to get released

[qface64]

according to a recent update the head of IW was fired lol

[97gsx]

It should be around 930 pm in cali. Game developers work late huh?

edit

Apparently this sh!t got real
http://investor.activision....

[maskedwarrior]

Looks like the story has updated:

"UPDATE 11:20 PM: It turns out Activision may have showed their hand in this matter earlier today.

In an SEC filing made earlier today, Activision cited a human resources investigation into "into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward."

Based on the information we currently have, at least one of those employees may have included Infinity Ward CTO Jason West. It's possible Vince Zampella is the other unmentioned employee.

"This matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation," read the Activision's filing. "At present, the Company does not expect this matter to have a material impact on the Company."

[vhero]

You make a broken product you get fired *simples* dont matter who made that game it would have sold the same.

[Udidntlistenpunk]

But this...this is an INTERNAL matter.

Activision OWNS Infinity Ward. They can do that. In the end, IW WORKS for Activision. If you dont get along with the boss, its not the boss's fault.

Sure, it may be unfair and the "boss" may be an asshole but lol you have a choice not to work for him. Just get out and you have your life back.

[Consoldtobots]

thus marks the death knell of infinity ward, Rare anyone?

[-MD-]

According to a brand new article on N4G Rare is opening a second studio, not gonna happen.

[Consoldtobots]

oh I only meant it in the sense that IW will become a corporate puppet shadow of what it once was. : )

[Dandiego]

Maybe they will reopen another studio and build something even better... they did it once when they left from MOH to start COD...

[Timesplitter14]

Are you guys serious? This is just a retarded publicity stunt.

"lol durr IW's heads have been kidnapped by the FBI/Al-Qaeda! They knew too much!"

yeah right

[Old Greg]

Terrible movie.

Ontopic: You guys think this was extreme, lol, you should see the way Apple handles things.

[marioPSUC]

I think it's all a publicity stunt to steal the spotlight off of DICE and BFBC2's release. I mean Fourzerotwo did say they were almost ready to release DLC info almost a week ago, so maybe that's what its about

[FantasyStar]

Early April Fools' Joke, me-thinks.

[Sarcasm]

April Fools joke in the beginning of March... Real clever there...

[Saaking]

Kotick wants more money

[young juice]

sorry saaking, but you dont joke about things like this,

its not right

while it does seem odd that this happens on the exact day day bc2 launches, i just dont want you people feeling really akward if something happens.

a relative of mine was kidnapped and people thought it was a false alarm. after that i'll take pretty much anything seriously. but i dont expect you to understand

[Kerrby]

Are you serious young juice?

Nothing bad is going to happen, it's just a publicity stunt to distract people from Bad Company 2.

[Saaking]

Aw come on man, it's just a publicity stunt. Nothing bad will happen becuase it's obvious we'd all find out about it immediately and Activision would be in some serious legal trouble.

Publicity stunt, nothing more.

[Kerrby]

You people.... giving disagrees for me speaking the truth?

Wow.

[Biggest]

Well all they have to do is run into the bouncers with a Javelin.

[badz149]

if and only if that glitch happen in real life! run with the javelin, got pucned by the bouncers and then BOOM!! LOL! +bubbles for making me laugh

[Lavalamp]

Dammit Activision! What have you done this time?

[Rich1631]

I call BS, this seems fake as hell. Seems like a publicity stunt.

[TheIneffableBob]

Coincidence that this happens right before the Bad Company 2 launch?

[Rich1631]

Exactly. If this does turn out to be fake, I will have truly lost all respect (well what is left) for Infinity Ward and Activision...that would just be low.

[badz149]

who wouldn't want to be there? LOL!

[SynGamer]

IW needs to fix their damn game and Kotick needs to be booted, greedy bastard. This does however have the feeling of a prank/PR stunt...just sayin'.

[alphakennybody]

maybe they wanted to go independent with all the money they made , but Big K refused and called his homies in guatanamo bay... just saying.

anymw like the above mentioned I smell a PR stunt.

[Rucury]

Made my day. Guantanamo Bay? Classic. ^^

[Digital Commando]

It was only a matter of time, IW would be fine independent for a while because of all of the money they made off of MW2.

[badz149]

here's in the hope of them making better games like they used to! CoD2 and CoD4 were phenomenal but MW2 is just POO!!

[DiffusionE]

Makes no sense. Possible publicity stunt? I mean, BF: BC2 is about to come out in a few hours and take the spotlight....

[-MD-]

Perhaps.

[TrailerParkSupervisr]

Shiit police have arrived and there is going to be a shiit beating until eveyone single gamer is reimbursed for their money.

[MetalNCarnet]

The the Sony ApocalyPS3 and this happening. Today is the WEIRDEST day in gaming EVER!

[SSS]

This stuff is pretty crazy eh? Crazy, Crazy day for gaming.

[chriski333]

IW should get there ass kicked for putting MW2 out with all of these damn problem good thing bad company is out 2morrow

[Noob]

It just keeps getting better though.

[swiftshot93]

People love to hate on IW these days but they forget the phenomenon that was CoD4, aka the best FPS this generation. And yes, I am 100% ready to argue that its the best FPS and Im very confident about it.

People also tend to forgot the CoD4 was THE game of 2007, the game that ran perfectly on PS3.

[Rich1631]

CoD4 was awesome, Modern Warfare 2...not so much. Basing the entire game around kill streaks was stupid, it encouraged camping. Plus the maps suck, it uses the same crap matchmaking, it is loaded with bugs, and most of all just wasn't as fresh as CoD4. It got old fast. But whatever, I come back to it every so often. It wasn't bad, just disappointing. I probably won't buy the DLC though seeing as IW just sucks at fixing things as simple as the hacked leaderboards.

[Nitrowolf2]

Ran perfectly on ps3? Are you Fn kidding, at launch it had the same issue as Number 2 with the connection, It was great for a while, but then hacker got on and manage to edit the save data, you know how much he11 that was? Seriousely try shooting at a guy going all over the map in a second with unlimited ammo. But i will admit it was the game of 2007, but now that MW2 is out this hacks should be gone, but supposibly people are still able to do them.
i am not hating on it, only reason why people liked it so much because it was fresh start from the traditional COD series. You play 2 and its not the same feeling,

[TrailerParkSupervisr]

I will quit drinking forever. Full Moon baby. Harvest style! Brings out the batties!

[BALLARD32]

Agreed. Those fools at IW can rot in hell. All I want is my bc2.

[Anti-Fanboyer]

one does not simply walk into DICE studios.

[skip2mylou]

OH SH!T it's a shake down

[TheFlyingPenguin]

"A source close to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 developer just informed me that a "bunch of bouncer-types" just showed up outside of the Infinity Ward offices unannounced."

Really? I really dont believe in articles that start off with "A source close to...." since the "MGS4 is coming to the Xbox 360" rumours.

[ThisPlaceSucksBye]

And Activision sinks to a new low.

At least it shows how afraid they are of a game that's MUCH MUCH better than their noob fragfest.

[NewYork214]

somebody should call the cops and send them to IW office if this is such a "scary situation". this whole thing seems like BS

[Biggest]

That would be gotdamned incredible. If their offices were in SD, I'd call right now. Someone do it. PLEASE!!!

[NewYork214]

thats what i was thinking lol. they would get in a bunch of trouble if it ended up being all a stunt.

[SSS]

http://maps.google.ca/maps?...

Somebody send them a tip to look into this and make sure its not a stupid publicity stunt. Having a cop be at the spot during this volatile situation should ensure the bouncers don't get rough with any employees.

[SSS]

http://maps.google.ca/maps?...

[FLAMES_187]

Damn.

[Sigh]

some dude posted one of the IW developers had been fired. Even presented a screenshot of his status on facebook. Jason West I think it was.

[Nikobaxton]

Yeah, he's the director of the modern warfare game(s).

[Sigh]

pretty much sucks. Now modern warfare will be even more sh^& than it already is. I have the game, I enjoy it, but it ain't perfect. Now it'll just be worse without him.

[xAlmostPro]

well infinity have the rights to the 'modern warfare names' but activision published it and of course own the 'call of duty' ..

and anyway to my point infinity ward already said there next game wouldnt be 'modern warfare 3' chances are they already have a new scene planned for there next game(without the call of duty title) and activision dont like it

[Johnny Jiron]

Do you think IW would sabotage their own game in order to get out of a contract with Activision or some such legal thing? Activision catching onto the shenanigans then decides to take things into their own hands and put in a new dev team, willing to kiss some Kotick ass for a lil extra green, and have that new team fix the game proper and canning most of the IW staff in a fashion that would blacklist them from most of the industry?

Hmm I suppose I could clean this theory up a bit but the point is in there somewhere...

Anyways we'll find out if this is serious or a poorly done publicity stunt soon enough.

[slave2Dcontroller]

But Activision doesnt have the clout to get these devs black listed. Many companies would jump at the chance to snatch up Jason West and whoever the hell else they oust from IW.

Bobby Kotick is a douche and everyone knows. No one likes or respects him enough to blacklist these guys, their an critical asset to the FPS-Crazed-Generation.

[FantasyStar]

One thing's for sure. If IW really wanted to leave Activision. The employees can just split and form their own company. They did it before when they split from EA to create IW in the first place.

[Johnny Jiron]

yeah the blacklisting part is a bit of a stretch. figured it would fit in with the conspiracy theory theme i had. heh.

[mynd]

I would think its pretty obvious, the 2 of them got fired, the bouncers are there to stop them entering the building again.

[dirthurts]

That's why no one has saw him. Laid off. Canned. Gone.

[Ninji]

EA thought it would be funny to bring IW some "Bad Company".

[AliTheBrit19]

LMAO

Activision suck, so wait one of the heads of Infinity Ward just got forced out of a job I'm guessing?..

[DanCrabtree]

Whether or not this ends up being anything actually incriminating, which it very well may be, I think the damage is done. Now that the active gaming community has even some sniff about it, those reputations are just ruined.

[Dawn_Of_Ashes]

Who care... MW2 was an horrible game with an outdated engine with an incredible hype around the game.
And to thank us for buying the game, infinity ward gave us a game with so much glitch online that the game is litteraly unplayable.

[FantasyStar]

Good Photoshop work.

[DiffusionE]

Talk about 'disrespect'....IW gave them their most profitable game, and in return they fired the co-founder. I see some colorful headlines in the near future.

[Cernunnos]

And the most buggy...

[xg-ei8ht]

Seriously if will smith turns up, whats the problem.

[ReBurn]

Oh my gosh! Some real news! And what's funny is that so many here haven't seen real news in so long that they think it's a conspiracy!

Oh well, I guess with no real information the conspiracy nuts will fill in the gaps. People get fired all the time. It sucks, but it happens.

[spinbot_lv1]

damn! kotick strikes again.West and Zampella(the co-founders of Infinity ward) fired for "insubordination". Kotick is a real greedy-bad man, and Activision is the worst publisher of the entire gaming industry.recently they also have the nerve to ask another console price cut while their titles are the most expensive.

[bjornbear]

the reason for MW2 being so bad

its like any team...if they work under stress, the outcome will usually be effected =(

[deathbetold]

They are like a drowning man gasping for air as they drown in there own pool of vomit. i say vomit b/c they did this to themselves. they also recently gave a cnd of a ip of kings quest in which the fan developers were 8 years into developing and already got permission from the previous ip owner to do. they are sinking and just trying to deny it from themselves

[zack61]

Oh My God

[hamsterfist]

It might be a little too early, but what the heck. Hopefully gamers can stick together and boycott Activision straight out of business.

(Assuming of course, as I do, that the Kotick goon squad was WAY out of line and that MW2 was a glitchy mess thanks to AV.)

[xAlmostPro]

well there was already talks of infinity ward leaving the 'call of duty franchise and activision' they probably filed for that and now activision want ALL the rights to the 'modern warfare' franchise meaning like we got 98676987 ww2 games were about to get 98676987 modern warfare games haha(last bit was a joke obviously)

either that OR.. infinity ward were so confident in there game they were like YEAAAH WERE GONNA MAKE MILLIONS, so they did and then spent it all and then it was realised the games actually kinda lame and full of issues and now they have no monies to fix it :( and now activision want the game and its rights so they can get people to actually fix it(cough treyarch or the new studio) and earn more money since there also at a loss right now :p

one of those 2 :L :L

[blahblah123]

Epic Fail. If there were any real journalists in this "video game journalism" we'd have a better idea on what is going on instead of relying on a couple Twitter posts.

[Cernunnos]

TBH I couldn't care less for them. MW2 is a mess, and MW3 will not be on my day 1 purchase list. COD4 FTW!

[shysun]

Iw went through this with EA and they went on to make COD. If they leave HACKtivision, they will be just fine............at Sony! lol

[bigjclassic]

the 2 higher ups that got canned from IW, are going to form or join another company to make a military shooter?

[Omega Zues]

It was a nice cool morning when Activision showed up at Infinity Ward office. "Hello" says Activision."Good morning" Infinity Ward replies. "So hows MW2 More Bullet edition coming for release this september?" Activision says with a smirk. Infinity Ward confused slowly and calmly says "Excuse me?". Activision then smiles saying "Oh and is MW3 on track for the November release???". Infinity Ward shakes off what Activision has just said, stands up and ask "Sir what in the world are you talking about, thats impossible to release a half baked game and then release a sequel to our game that just released a few months ago."

Activision sighs "Infinity Ward your jokes are dry and bore me. So now show me the goods, show me my games." Infinity Ward then grows angry and yells "Look, there is none of that crap happening! We are just now starting on production for a new project years down the road." Activision begins to laugh "Oh Infinity Ward you should know by now that we dont do (new) and (years). We only milk and milk milk milk much as possible. So be a good lad and begin the milking process.". Infinity Ward stands strong and firm saying "No". Activision then says "Security".

The rest you already know.

[Ripyealip]

i dont care what any of yall say infinity ward make good games they just cant test them for sh!T

[jalen247]

The goons were probably sent by Bobby Kotick and Activision to prevent the two Infinity Ward studio heads (West and Zampella) from getting back into the building.