• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Infinity Ward Bailout Watch

A

Akia

Member
Last Updated: 5/2/10

News Beat:
http://kotaku.com/5525152/eight-more-leave-modern-warfare-developers-making-25-in-total

33lk16v.jpg

(credit for the shop goes to adriano999)


Mole within Activision: "IW as you know it is dead...and it will continue to crumble." (Kotaku):
"They're scared shitless," the source said of Activision management. "They never saw this coming. They can't believe what's going on. At first they gave us some bullshit about moving up payments of all the money they owe us to sooner increments. That was when [designer] Todd [Alderman] and [engineer] Frank [Gigliotti] left. But with the announcement of Respawn and all the people leaving, they just got there heads in their hands."

The Infinity Ward insider painted the former bosses in a positive light, blaming Activision for withholding Modern Warfare 2 payments. "They fired the two most amazing leaders we've ever seen, and then shafted us all out of a lot of money that was promised to us...there is nothing they can do to gain our trust or respect. And I'm pretty sure they know it now."

"IW as you know it is dead...and it will continue to crumble. There are a lot more veterans who are definitely going to leave."
Click to expand...

--

29lfiia.gif

(credit for the gif goes to LeMaximilian)

Those Who Have Respawned [Length of Respawn Timer in Days]
(18 out of 26 potential ex-IW -- as of 5/2/10 -- Employment Start Date: May 1st, 2010)

  • Jason West -- President, Game Director [42]
  • Vince Zampella -- CEO, Co-Founder [42]
  • Francesco Gigliotti -- Lead Software Engineer [15]
  • Todd Alderman -- Lead Designer [10]
  • Jon Shiring -- Lead Programmer [10]
  • Chris Cherubini -- Lead Artist [10]
  • Mark Grigsby -- Lead Animator [10]
  • John Paul Messerly -- Lead Character Animator [10]
  • Rayme Vinson -- Programmer [10]
  • Mackey McCandlish -- Lead Designer [10]
  • Brent McLeod -- Senior Designer [14]
  • Chris Lambert -- Programmer [14]
  • Jason McCord -- Designer [15]
  • Ryan Lastimosa - Artist [1]
  • Chad Grenier -- Senior Designer
  • Zied Rieke -- Lead Designer
  • Preston Glenn -- Level Designer
  • Sean Slayback -- Designer

--

feedkoticksouls.gif

(credit for the gif goes to Mama Robotnik)

Those Who Left (so far):

Most Recent IW Departures (as of 4/27/10)
  • Kristen Cotterell -- Human Resources/Recruitment Specialist
  • Robert Field -- Lead Programmer


Full List (26 Total) [35% of staff who worked on MW2 have left]

Top Men - [2 people]
  • Jason West -- President, Game Director (fired)
  • Vince Zampella -- CEO, Co-Founder (fired)

Programming and Software Engineering - [5 people]
  • Francesco Gigliotti -- Lead Software Engineer
  • Robert Field -- Lead Programmer
  • Jon Shiring -- Lead Programmer
  • Rayme Vinson -- Programmer
  • Chris Lambert -- Programmer

Art + Animation - [7 people]
  • Chris Cherubini -- Lead Artist
  • Joel Emslie - Lead Artist
  • Mark Grigsby -- Lead Animator
  • Paul Messerly -- Lead Character Animator
  • Bruce Ferriz -- Senior Animator (joined a start-up, Big Red Button Entertainment)
  • Ryan Lastimosa - Artist
  • Brad Allen - Artist

Game Design - [9 people]
  • Todd Alderman -- Lead Designer
  • Mackey McCandlish -- Lead Designer
  • Steve Fukuda -- Lead Designer
  • Zied Reike -- Lead Designer
  • Brent McLeod -- Senior Designer
  • Mohammad Alavi -- Senior Designer
  • Chad Grenier -- Senior Designer
  • Jason McCord -- Designer
  • Charlie Wiederhold -- Designer

Level Design - [2 people]
  • Keith Bell -- Level Designer
  • Preston Glenn -- Level Designer

Other - [1 person]
  • Kristen Cotterell -- Human Resources/Recruitment Specialist

sndnxh.jpg

(credit for the shop goes to Kibbles)
 
H

h3ro

Member
I wonder how many of them will go over to Respawn. Also, IW can keep fourzerotwo. Not too big a fan after the way MW2 was marketed and the community was treated. Enjoyed the community work around MW1, MW2, not so much.

Can Activision block these guys from going to Respawn?
 
G

GodfatherX

Member
I have a feeling we are going to need a centralized thread for future departures and I expect no less then 70% of the studio to bail now that royalties have obviously been paid and Respawn has seed money to begin full staffing
 
-COOLIO-

-COOLIO-

The Everyman
h3ro said:
Can Activision block these guys from going to Respawn?
Click to expand...
oh shit, i didnt know they had a name

and a sick one at that.

activisions cod will lose all money makeability in 3 more games
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
ezekial45 said:
How many people work at IW?
Click to expand...
It was just under 100.

So with these nine gone, plus West and Zampella, that leaves them with less than 89. Unless of course we missed some leaving.

Edit:

Corrected the starting number.
 
-COOLIO-

-COOLIO-

The Everyman
GodfatherX said:
I have a feeling we are going to need a centralized thread for future departures and I expect no less then 70% of the studio to bail now that royalties have obviously been paid and Respawn has seed money to begin full staffing
Click to expand...

activision lost the royalties thing? i need to keep up :D
 
O

overthehill99

Member
It's going to be so funny when whatever game they come out with sells like every other military shooter because it doesn't have the Call of Duty name attached to it. :lol
 
N

NameGenerated

Who paid you to grab Dr. Pavel?
Blu_LED said:
It's going to be so funny when whatever game they come out with sells like every other military shooter because it doesn't have the Call of Duty name attached to it. :lol
Click to expand...
RB did alright without the Guitar Hero name.
 
Chittagong

Chittagong

Gold Member
Great thread idea. Could we have West & Zampella there too? Would also be good to see the titles of the people who left, would be easier to assess the level of damage.
 
Kibbles

Kibbles

Member
Kotick meltdown.
Blu_LED said:
It's going to be so funny when whatever game they come out with sells like every other military shooter because it doesn't have the Call of Duty name attached to it. :lol
Click to expand...
"From the makers of CoD4" :D
 
G

GodfatherX

Member
-COOLIO- said:
activision lost the royalties thing? i need to keep up :D
Click to expand...
Not to Vince and Jeff, but it appears royalties have been paid out to the rest of the studio

Edit: just heard on Giant Bomb that the original new studio name was Insubordinate Games lol
 
O

overthehill99

Member
NameGenerated said:
RB did alright without the Guitar Hero name.
Click to expand...
True, but it only had the competition of one other plastic music game, which it was significantly better then. Respawn's game has to complete with the tons and tons of military COD clones that come out every year, and COD itself.
 
R

Roughmar

Member
Can someone explain, or link me, something that explains exactly what happened?

So far I know that 2 big guys from MW2 were fired from Activision. These guys sue Activision, as it weren't paying them royalties. Activision countersues them of something more or less like espionage. Is this correct?

What is going on?
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Akia said:
Those Who Left:

  • Todd Alderman
  • Francesco Gigliotti
  • Mackey McCandlish
  • Steve Fukuda -- Lead Designer
  • Zied Reike -- Lead Designer
  • Rayme Vinson -- Programmer
  • Chris Cherubini -- Lead Artist
  • Jon Shiring
  • Bruce Ferriz (for a start-up, Big Red Button Entertainment)
Click to expand...
Todd Alderman was a lead designer and Francesco Gigliotti was a lead software engineer.
 
N

NameGenerated

Who paid you to grab Dr. Pavel?
Blu_LED said:
True, but it only had the competition of one other plastic music game, which it was significantly better then. Respawn's game has to complete with the tons and tons of military COD clones that come out every year, and COD itself.
Click to expand...
Rock Revolution, dude.
 
S

ShogunX

Member
Y2Kev said:
Still at IW:

  • Robert Bowling

everything is ok
Click to expand...


Why the FourZeroTwo hate? Is it the way he handled the announcement of no dedicated servers on the PC or because he was acting like a smug douche bag in the build up to the MW2 release?
 
A

Azerach

Banned
Shogun PaiN said:
Why the FourZeroTwo hate? Is it the way he handled the announcement of no dedicated servers on the PC or because he was acting like a smug douche bag in the build up to the MW2 release?
Click to expand...
Fight against grenade spam... smh
 
M

Manos: The Hans of Fate

Banned
I feel bad for the regular employees at IW, I wonder if they have positions waiting for them at Respawn or they're just going to lose their job if IW gets folded.


On the bright side, Treyarch must be busting out bottles of champagne now and break dancing like Donnie Yen in Yuen Woo Ping's Mismatched Couples. Come on, look it up on youtube, you know you want to.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Razor210 said:
How many employees work at IW again?

This has to make a least some impact to Activision as to how they run their business.
Click to expand...
Well, at the very minimum Activision has to find people to make Modern Warfare 3, which is going to crunch its development time if they insist on keeping their schedule.
 
Y

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Shogun PaiN said:
Why the FourZeroTwo hate? Is it the way he handled the announcement of no dedicated servers on the PC or because he was acting like a smug douche bag in the build up to the MW2 release?
Click to expand...
I think IW's interfacing with the community in the leadup to and after the release of Modern Warfare 2 was contemptuous and rude. Luckily we have point people for this so our ire--misguided or not--can be more easily focused. Let your anger flow.

I don't feel particular fondness for anyone at the studio, and I'm sure there'd be more people upset over more things if they knew exactly who was responsible for "FAGS" and things like "Blunt Trauma"/"Joint Operation."
 
N

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
Shogun PaiN said:
Why the FourZeroTwo hate? Is it the way he handled the announcement of no dedicated servers on the PC or because he was acting like a smug douche bag in the build up to the MW2 release?
Click to expand...
I still remember that podcast or whatever it was when the no dd servers was announced. The silences that were inbetween the answers was cold as ice. Brutal stuff.
 
-COOLIO-

-COOLIO-

The Everyman
GodfatherX said:
Not to Vince and Jeff, but it appears royalties have been paid out to the rest of the studio

Edit: just heard on Giant Bomb that the original new studio name was Insubordinate Games lol
Click to expand...
ah

and

:lol
 
G

ghst

thanks for the laugh
""My name is FourZeroTwo, king of community management:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
 
M

markot

Banned
How long till Kotick wraps up IW >_<?

Or will he keep it around for the name?

Probably just change treyarchs name to Infinity ward!
 
F

FreedomFrisbee

Member
This really is delicious to watch unfold. No matter who wins the suit, activision has already lost in the long term, just like it did with guitar hero.
 
L

LeMaximilian

Alligator F*ck House
Kinda bites cause 'Infinity Ward' is a pretty badass name for a company. Nontheless...this is gonna be gooood work time entertainment. :D
 
M

Manos: The Hans of Fate

Banned
Y2Kev said:
I don't feel particular fondness for anyone at the studio, and I'm sure there'd be more people upset over more things if they knew exactly who was responsible for "FAGS" and things like "Blunt Trauma"/"Joint Operation."
Click to expand...

Yeah with that and the name of the new studio you think it was being run by a bunch of petty high schoolers.

I've always had more sympathy for the crap Trayarch had to put up with from IW.
 
A

adriano999

Member
Shogun PaiN said:
Why the FourZeroTwo hate? Is it the way he handled the announcement of no dedicated servers on the PC or because he was acting like a smug douche bag in the build up to the MW2 release?
Click to expand...
Simply because is an idiot who thinks he is important "for the community", but he doesn't know shit about the game. If you can, listen to that major nelson's podcast about the stimulus package where he said iw were "listening to the community through the forums and twitter" when in fact it's bullshit, because he doesn't even read the official forum anymore("Last visited: 16 Mar 2010 08:32"). :D
 
S

Sohter.Nura

Member
Well, I'm not sure if leaving for Respawn is a great move, either.

Remember, Zampella and West may be the bosses over there, but the big boss is still EA nonetheless. That's like switching 6 for half a dozen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

More than 70 Guerrilla developers worked on Death Stranding
30
2K
Bryank75 replied
The Ghostbusters (2009) devs did a Reddit AMA
23
8K
Oh God Why replied
Epic announces GDC panels (including Fortnite)
3
2K
Nirolak replied
Speculation: Visceral developing Battlefield game for Fall 2014 (with evidence)
2 3 4
161
47K
Alienous replied
  • Locked
15 Films to See in June (what are you watching?)
2
73
7K
RBelong2Us replied
Top Bottom