Rumor: Security Locks Down Infinity Ward, Ousts Studio Head *UPDATE*

[IckleMissMayhem]

Well, colour me intrigued. Think I'mma gonna wait for an update before I start a speculatin', but it does all sound a tad over-dramatic... Note to Activision: you usually give the guys til the end of the day to clear their desks, and they don't generally need your flunkies' help doing it...

 

[LockeDown]

Interesting. Assuming whatever he did to land himself in the unemployment line wasn't anything too heinous, I wonder if another company will pick him up for his insight. And if so, who?

Or maybe he didn't do anything at all, and as has been mentioned, Activision thought IW was getting a little too cocky, and they decided to off the top dog to prevent some sort of company coup.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Update: Earlier today, Activision filed an SEC report that mentioned Activision looking into "breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward." The filing also states that "this matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation."

Additionally, a post on Facebook by Jason West, confirmed to be legitimate, mentions being newly unemployed. West has also updated his LinkedIn profile with a March 2010 end-date for his position at IW.

http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=62577

Now what the hell could they have done to warrent this, though...

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Well Bad Company 2 is coming out. I think they're worried.

Because that will somehow impact the millions upon millions of sales of MW2 that have alredy occured? Or will somehow impact a game released months in the future after the rush to BC2 is over? I'm not really sure were you're going with this to be honest. Possibly affecting future sales of MW2 DLC?

 

[DanDeFool]

Update: Earlier today, Activision filed an SEC report that mentioned Activision looking into "breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward." The filing also states that "this matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation."

Additionally, a post on Facebook by Jason West, confirmed to be legitimate, mentions being newly unemployed. West has also updated his LinkedIn profile with a March 2010 end-date for his position at IW.

http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=62577

Now what the hell could they have done to warrent this, though...

The plot thickens. There goes my theory that the place was raided by fanatical republican-backed commandos looking to murder the game industry one developer at a time.

Man, not that I would prefer my theory being true, but the world sure is boring sometimes, isn't it?

 

[Mortons4ck]

Won't it be funny if it turns out the guys getting axed were breaking their contracts, Activision was entirely in the right to get rid of them?

*makes popcorn*

I am enjoying this chaos.

Perhaps. But still, you don't want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

 

[Chaos Marine]

Well Bad Company 2 is coming out. I think they're worried.

So they screw over the game company that put out the best selling game of all time? That would be a fucking stupid thing for them to do.

This is Activision we're talking about, 'Fucking Stupid' is their MO.

 

[Epitome]

Probably running skim lol Serious all that MW2 cash running through IW to Activision, maybe some was lost in the books somewhere.

 

[BobisOnlyBob]

Update: Earlier today, Activision filed an SEC report that mentioned Activision looking into "breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward." The filing also states that "this matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation."

Additionally, a post on Facebook by Jason West, confirmed to be legitimate, mentions being newly unemployed. West has also updated his LinkedIn profile with a March 2010 end-date for his position at IW.

http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=62577

Now what the hell could they have done to warrent this, though...

I found the annual investor report.

http://investor.activision.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1047469-10-1649

Published yesterday to the SEC by Activision, it confirms the trouble. Section 18, page F-50, paragraph beginning "In November 2009". Passage reads:

The Company is concluding an internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward. 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.

This is serious business.

 

[NeonAnderson]

publicity stunt probably yeah. I mean lol they are busy working on MW 3 so yeah... something to distract people from the fact that they are milking the franchise and being very successful at it

 

[Pigeon_Grenade]

this all sounds Really weird...

 

[Booze Zombie]

Um... weird.

 

[JEBWrench]

Update: Earlier today, Activision filed an SEC report that mentioned Activision looking into "breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward." The filing also states that "this matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation."

Additionally, a post on Facebook by Jason West, confirmed to be legitimate, mentions being newly unemployed. West has also updated his LinkedIn profile with a March 2010 end-date for his position at IW.

http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=62577

Now what the hell could they have done to warrent this, though...

I found the annual investor report.

http://investor.activision.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1047469-10-1649

Published yesterday to the SEC by Activision, it confirms the trouble. Section 18, page F-50, paragraph beginning "In November 2009". Passage reads:

The Company is concluding an internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward. 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.

This is serious business.

Now knowing that this is serious business, are we free to speculate ridiculous scenarios that caused said breach? I'm thinking that they broke Activision's required "don't make games that people enjoy playing" clause.

 

[Milney]

What's with the shock? I can't believe it's taken them this long to 'discipline' the Infinity Ward guys. I mean back when CoD: WaW was being developed (by another studio) I remember the IW guys getting all preachy, and frankly rather rude about the studio developing it - not good for the Publishing house (which owns the IP for the whole series) to deal with that kind of PR.

My money (if this all turns out to be true) is on the IW guys having done/said something rediculous about Bad Company, and rather than deal with that PR they decided to put the kibosh on them once and for all. And frankly, about time to, especially after IW kept up the trend of awful PR and Communications during the MW2 release.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Freaky shit. Not a CoD fan so this has minimal impact on me, but the fact that activision is turning in to the douchebag of the industry at the moment (with ubisoft as a close runner up), it's definitely got my interests perked.

Just hope it's nothing too serious and the guy/s don't get blacklisted in the industry.

What's with the shock? I can't believe it's taken them this long to 'discipline' the Infinity Ward guys. I mean back when CoD: WaW was being developed (by another studio) I remember the IW guys getting all preachy, and frankly rather rude about the studio developing it - not good for the Publishing house (which owns the IP for the whole series) to deal with that kind of PR.

Really? That's funny, considering I thought treyarch (thats their name right?) did a better job with CoD:WaW then IW did with EITHER of their MW games.

Guess they thought so too...

 

[Kollega]

Does anything activision does surprise anyone anymore? Honestly they are the gaming equivalent to the Nazi party now.

Googled "Nazi Bobby Kotick", didn't found any relevant pictures. Someone's gotta take care of that.

I'm intrested what precisely did they do to get fired, though.

 

[Krelias]

Blizzard and activision product quality has dropped since the merger (think MW1 vs. MW2 or WoW post Lich King major patches) I wouldn't be surprised if more devs up and leave or get the boot.