Wed, Mar 03, 2010 | 07:22 GMT

Call of Duty’s DAY OF DEATH – everything you need to know

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That was exciting, wasn’t it? Fuck the APOCALYPS3 – Infinity Ward implosion and Sledgehammer obvo-reveals are where it’s at.

The face of Call of Duty, one of the world’s biggest game franchises, drastically altered in the last 24 hours, with the story ballooning faster than you may have liked. What happened? Hit the link.

  • It was rumoured back in early January that Infinity Ward was not developing Modern Warfare 3. Newly-formed Activision studio Sledgehammer, headed by ex-Visceral bosses Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, was tipped as the game’s likely developer.
  • The following day, Schofield said the studio’s first game would be “quite unique”.
  • Fast forward to yesterday. Reports claimed that a security detail arrived at Infinity Ward and bosses Vince Zampella and Jason West vanished after a “meeting”. Both West and Zampella‘s LinkedIn profiles switch IW to “past”.
  • Activision filed a SEC document citing a human resources investigation into “into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward.”
  • The story ramps up. A report claims the root of the trouble is that Infinity Ward hasn’t been paid any royalties for Modern Warfare 2.
  • Activision boss Bobby Kotick is then rumoured to be on-site at IW for a staff meeting.
  • Late last night, Acti dropped the bomb, confirming Sledgehammer as working on a new Call of Duty game, although the project is described as an “action-adventure”.
  • In the release, another Call of Duty game is apparently mentioned for release in 2011. A report claims this title is separate to the Sledgehammer game, but we’re still waiting for official clarification on this.
  • Activision further confirms the formation of a Call of Duty business unit and the departure of both West and Zampella from Infinity Ward.
  • Activision CEO Mike Griffith claims Infinity Ward is still “central” to the CoD IP.
  • The publisher reaffirms that it “expects to release a new Call of Duty game from Treyarch this fall. In addition, Infinity Ward is in development on the first two downloadable map packs for Modern Warfare 2 for release in 2010.”
  • There’s a lot of rumour swirling this morning, but it’s bitty and noxious. A little like fallout.

That’s it. That’s everything. There is no more. Thanks for your attention.

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18 comment-trail-alt Posted in: Action, Activision Blizzard, Hot, PC, PS3, Shooter, Xbox 360
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18 comments

#1

blackdreamhunk
03/03/10, 7:22 am

the power of god, god listens to prayers of certen people. :)
what goes around comes around! gaming industy is full of greed!

#2

Gekidami
03/03/10, 7:28 am

What a sad, little boy you are.

#3

blackdreamhunk
03/03/10, 7:31 am

@Gekidami

I have no pitty for them. They would screw their fan base and treat them like dirt. they wanted to sleep in the same bed as satain himself. It’s not like they were not warned.Now they are paying the price like meny publishers and game devs.

my words are so solid

Infinty ward were the ones who said they loved actvision sooo much!

Oh and the gaming media was goalting about Infinty ward over pc gamers. It was all over the Internet, well god made this all over the internet!lol

greed, the love of money is the route of all evil.

#4

G1GAHURTZ
03/03/10, 7:36 am

bdh, at first, I was surprised that you seemed to be admitting spending your time praying for a company to fold just because they didn’t give you the option to use dedicated servers…

Then I realised that there’s little that you can do to surprise me these days…

#5

G1GAHURTZ
03/03/10, 7:37 am

Oh, and thanks for ruining the joke, Steph!

pfft.

#6

blackdreamhunk
03/03/10, 7:38 am

lol I never said I prayed for a company to fold. I told god that there is people that want to destory pc gaming because of greed!

#7

Gekidami
03/03/10, 7:38 am

WaW has sold over 11 million, people dont really care if IW make the games or not, aslong as its a CoD game Activision will still be making money. The new Sledgehammer Games one will sell just as well and make another shit load.
As for IW? 2 guys quit, important guys? Sure. But Acti still owns the rest of the devs and they can still make MW3, not that they will any time soon. SEEING AS LONG BEFORE ALL THIS IW SAID THAT THEY WANTED TO DO SOMETHING ELSE.

Yeah, conclusion, You fail.

#8

G1GAHURTZ
03/03/10, 7:38 am

Oh dear.

#9

blackdreamhunk
03/03/10, 7:40 am

oh and i think I named a few game devs too. lol ;)

#10

G1GAHURTZ
03/03/10, 7:43 am

People bought WaW because it was CoD4 with a new skin.

Not because Treyarch are any good at making games.

The problem for Acti here is if the IW staff just leave them and go and make something much better.

In that case, the CoD fans of now will leave the CoD franchise and Acti will lose out on a lot of money. They might even end up spending years trying to catch up just like EA have been doing with MoH since the IW guys left them.

#11

blackdreamhunk
03/03/10, 7:44 am

@G1GAHURTZ

infinty ward is done as a company. It’s game over for them. It’s pretty much down hill from here on in.

#12

G1GAHURTZ
03/03/10, 7:47 am

I see you’re back on top form again, bdh.

tbh, I hope so.

Mostly because I don’t like Activision, and I’ve never liked the idea of sharing the brand of my favourite game with a ‘me too’ company.

I hope IW closes, the staff go and start something new and bring out an FPS which is 10 times better than any CoD game.

#13

davidjwbailey
03/03/10, 7:52 am

LOLS

you put adverts for Battlefield Bad Company 2 right beside this, which is where about 90% of the PC players of MW2 are headed right now.

If this is about royalties (and two brilliant and charismatic leaders asking their team to follow them to somewhere else) then I am with the IW execs here and Activision need to seriously address their behaviour.

If not: storm in tea cup.

#14

Robo_1
03/03/10, 8:29 am

After watching Bobby Kotick’s DICE speech about how Activision respects and nurtures the talent under its wing, (whilst simultaneously having a pop at EA) all this is an incredible slap in the face.

What we’re seeing here folks, is the slaughter of the golden goose. They’ve got a team which clearly works well together and delivers 10 million selling games. Now if I were in Bobby’s shoes, I’d be doing whatever I could to ensure that Infinity Ward remains happy and stable, not rocking the boat by breaking up the team and commissioning a load of new CoD games, which are almost assured to dilute the pull of the franchise.

Of course there’s bound to be a flip side to the story, but at the end of the day, it’s Activisions’s responsibility to ensure that these types of disputes are resolved quickly and amicably. Turning it into such a public mess is certainly not the mark of good management.

#15

JonFE
03/03/10, 9:56 am

@ BlackDreamHunk:
In other words, instead of pedophiles, rapists, murderers, drug dealers, the scum of the earth, you chose to ask God to punish some game developers / publishers, because they are greedy and want to destroy PC gaming.

Glad to see you’ve got your priorities straight…

#16

Tallon 4
03/03/10, 11:59 am

Wow…reads like a idea for a game: Modern Warfare 3: The rise and fall of Bobby K.

#17

S0meRand0mN00b
03/03/10, 1:31 pm

what goes around comes around! is the only thing i can say as a pc gamer…

#18

OlderGamer
03/03/10, 2:06 pm

Only thing I can say is:

Battlefield Bad Company 2.

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