Do you think that Infinity Ward should go Indie?

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Since Infinity Ward seems to be dirfting away from activision slightly, and are showing signs of going Team Bondi,
I think that there is a huge possibilty that they might go like Bungie, ie: ignoring their masters to pursue a career of their own.

In my opinion, it would be a welcome change, because it would mean that they could start up new ips,
and that if they do decide to make more MW, the design is going to be tighter, and in the end the
game would end up better for it.

So I ask you, would be a good idea, if Infinity Ward decided to go Indie?

 

[fraszoid]

I don't think IW should go indie if they are making a good product, and making money for the publisher already. Activision has lots of money and resources so IW in theory is never wanting for stuff, they need money for equipment and they get it. Going Indie they would not have as much resources available and odds are Avtivision hold the IP for COD, so they can't just knock out a COD title to make money.

From an operational standpoint, thats a large piece of Activision they would be spinning off, and that would negatively affect Activisions bottom line and financial position. So Activision will fight it every step of the way. When you have the power Activision has, IW doesn't stand a chance on its own.

 

[tomtom94]

Which Infinity Ward, the one with all the talent that's working for EA or the one without it that's still working for Activision?

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Which Infinity Ward, the one with all the talent that's working for EA or the one without it that's still working for Activision?

I'm talking about the Modern Warfare Activison one.

 

[DarthNader26]

Er, doesn't being an indie developer imply your entire dev team could fit into an Astrovan and your funding consists of a jar of pennies and a wad of pocket lint?

You can't go from mainstream AAA developer to indie...

Semantics, sure, but Infinity Ward will -never- be an "indie" developer. They may break off, but they're such a huge moneymaker that they'll always have a big staff and publishers fighting to fund their next game.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Er, doesn't being an indie developer imply your entire dev team could fit into an Astrovan and your funding consists of a jar of pennies and a wad of pocket lint?

You can't go from mainstream AAA developer to indie...

Semantics, sure, but Infinity Ward will -never- be an "indie" developer. They may break off, but they're such a huge moneymaker that they'll always have a big staff and publishers fighting to fund their next game.

I meant "indie" in the same way that Bungie became "indie", even though they have enough staff to populate an entire island.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Should have when they got a salty deal, but now the original big brains are all gone and Activision owns all their IPs, so an inexperienced team would haveto drop all they learned sofar to create something completely unknown to the public praying for the gods of chance to ensure decent sales, leaving their best selling game in the industries history behind...

I think not.

 

[tomtom94]

Which Infinity Ward, the one with all the talent that's working for EA or the one without it that's still working for Activision?

I'm talking about the Modern Warfare Activison one.

Then probably wait until MW3 comes out to judge whether they've got it or if Activision's bankrolling (admittedly, pumping out a COD game every two years takes a lot of work) hides an average game studio.

Personally, I think losing the chief designer among others should by all rights have an impact on the quality of MW3; if it doesn't I'll be impressed.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

I love how people seem to think "Indie" equates to "good". Game design wouldn't get "tighter", it would get cheaper. Thats it.