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Security guards sent to Infinity Ward. West and Zampella fired for "insubordination"

DidntKnowJack said:
:lol God, I wish I could read the origin of that meme. No idea where it came from, though.
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Some tiny Sony fansite IIRC when some Japanese game (was it DMC?) was announced as a 360/PS3 game rather than just PS3.
 
Zizbuka said:
I can't decide if you're serious. You're a gaming culture expert? You don't think 99% of the gaming community couldn't care less? People will buy the next one. The only way they'll stop is if it starts to suck, or gets stale (if you don't already think it's stale).
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Oh GAF.. :lol I feel old now.
 
Zizbuka said:
I can't decide if you're serious. You're a gaming culture expert? You don't think 99% of the gaming community couldn't care less? People will buy the next one. The only way they'll stop is if it starts to suck, or gets stale (if you don't already think it's stale).
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TheFLYINGManga_Ka said:
I don't know. There are so many guys (whom I know of) that don't care about all this but still play Modern Warfare 2.

I don't think they'll care if this happened. They're still going to eat up every Call of Duty game.
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Prentice said:
What move? Because they fired someone?
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Thank God for the Internets.
 
Well, the thread's complete.
Like the "Apocalyps3" thread...
Meme was fired..and it took victims with it. :lol

Only thing is missing is Drinky and people quoting his tag with "so fast?"..
 
IcebergSlim3000 said:
They released a game with drug references, rampant glitching, and a level where you murder innocent civilians. I'm sure that didn't sit well with the higher ups. Someone's head had to roll.
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.......yeah
 
Zizbuka said:
I can't decide if you're serious. You're a gaming culture expert? You don't think 99% of the gaming community couldn't care less? People will buy the next one. The only way they'll stop is if it starts to suck, or gets stale (if you don't already think it's stale).
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:lol :lol :lol
This is awful I hope West finds work real soon and pulls as much IW talent with him as he can
 
DMeisterJ said:
The thing is, is that Activision has lightning in a bottle with CoD. For the forseeable future, every release will sell 10 million plus copies so them, not IW is in the power position here. It sucks but it's true.
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They've run their franchises into the ground by not caring about the quality and just wanting to shoot them out as rapidly as possible. 10 years ago Tony Hawk was one of the biggest names in gaming. Now when you mention a game in that series most gamers will laugh. Only a few years ago Guitar Hero was massive. Now it's on the brink of being irrelevant.
 
Fuuuck I could tell he was being an ass, but I don't even know an old meme from gaming side? I should spend more time here.

As said before, just seems like Activision wants to keep everything it can from the last two game in tact (including some lower personnel) while getting rid of those who don't agree with the new direction they want to take it (MMO, mindless sequels, ect).
 
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."
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http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/7...d=so-0907-twitterthefeed-702911#ixzz0h0BmoXuJ

Man, wtf happened at IW.
 
Didn't see this posted yet:
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."
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Edit: Beaten. -_-
 
I always love the first three pages of that FF13 thread.

Cocky know it alls getting owned then rushing back to edit their posts. :lol
 
randomlyrossy said:
I can't believe some people actually think Activision would gut Infinity Ward, you guys know they just made Modern Warfare 2 right? Activision wants to make money and Infinity Ward has proven to be a huge money maker.

Aside from people quitting in response to their boss being fired and the manner in which it happened I'd wager it's safe to say the staff at IW are staying put.
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Sounds like you should be working for Activision. You could be Kotick's protege.

Fucking up studio morale is bad in the long run. Short term Activison will still make loads of money though. Maybe they get one more CoD out of IW before they totally gut them. Then they can hand off the mega popular ip to some other studio that will make it for cheaper, while Activision makes fucktons of cash running CoD into the ground. People will then lose interested in cod, like what is happening with Guitar Hero, and by then Activision will be banking there will be some other popular studio with management that wants to cash out with the devil. Rinse and repeat.
 
Does the breaching of contract include refusing to go with a subscription plan for future Call of Duty games or making one CoD game a year?

And also, I know this has been mentioned already, but isn't it ironic that this happened in the wake of Battlefield BC2's release?
 
So, one of the IW heads got fired? Why all the bouncers?

And :lol at the people replying to that old, but hilarious meme!
 
If Jason and Vince were smart they should have been prepared for this outcome and taken the majority of the development team with them like Itagaki did.

Erasus said:
So, one of the IW heads got fired? Why all the bouncers?

And :lol at the people replying to that old, but hilarious meme!
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I'm pretty sure the bouncers were there so Jason couldn't return to the IW offices and get some of the staff to leave with him.
 
TheFLYINGManga_Ka said:
Does the breaching of contract include refusing to go with a subscription plan for future Call of Duty games or making one CoD game a year?

And also, I know this has been mentioned already, but isn't it ironic that this happened in the wake of Battlefield BC2's release?
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Bad Company 2 looks like a good alternative to CoD.
 
PSGames said:
If Jason and Vince were smart they should have been prepared for this outcome and taken the majority of the development team with them like Itagaki did.
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First they have to finish getting sued by Activision as a reward for their job well done.
 
for people asking "why the security/bouncers/etc", it's common practice when confidential and sensitive equipment/intellectual property is involved. happened with all of us at 1UP last year.
 
Erasus said:
So, one of the IW heads got fired? Why all the bouncers?

And :lol at the people replying to that old, but hilarious meme!
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Sounds like two big wigs at IW got fired. And the bouncers are there to stop them from entering the building to access shit in their office (their computer) or influence the remaining staff.
 
Erasus said:
So, one of the IW heads got fired? Why all the bouncers?

And :lol at the people replying to that old, but hilarious meme!
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Probably so he doesnt pull a Michael Scott and goes "WHO IS WITH MEEEEE"
 
Let me in said:
Wait a minute. So at Activision:
Low output, poor/moderate success = termination
High output, great success = termination
How does anyone keep their jobs?
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In most highly dysfunctional workplaces, the key to survival is to lay low and not attract any attention to yourself, good or bad.
I'm guessing Activision employees should be aiming for 65 - 80 Metascore and 750k - 2 million sales.
 
"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."
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I love publishers :lol :lol :lol

Firing the heads of the studio that made a game that made $310m dollars in it's first 24 hours, more than any media product in history won't have an impact on your company? Hmmmmm Mmmmm... :lol
 
Nirolak said:
First they have to finish getting sued by Activision as a reward for their job well done.
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That just sounds so wrong.

Then again, these are the same dudes who sued Tim Shaefer after they let Brutal Legend go and went to EA.
 
xbhaskarx said:
In most highly dysfunctional workplaces, the key to survival is to lay low and not attract any attention to yourself, good or bad.
I'm guessing Activision employees should be aiming for 65 - 80 Metascore and 750k - 2 million sales.
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Treyarch?
 
Maybe he was planning on leaving and setting up his own thingy, was sounding out employees on moving, Activision found out and pounced.

>.< I dunno.
 
Zizbuka said:
I can't decide if you're serious. You're a gaming culture expert? You don't think 99% of the gaming community couldn't care less? People will buy the next one. The only way they'll stop is if it starts to suck, or gets stale (if you don't already think it's stale).
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He's definitely serious, so you should start raging.
 
Truant said:
I'm sure most of the team will follow them into whatever new studio they set up.
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Yep, this.

I feel bad for IW but I'm also kind of happy. This means I don't have to buy Activision games anymore (IW was the only studio I liked).

Hopefully they get to create a new team quickly.
 
Nirolak said:
First they have to finish getting sued by Activision as a reward for their job well done.
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Litigation could mean litigation brought against them by the people they're terminating.
 
original.png
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302mej9.png

"Bummer, man."
 
so whats with this subscription based cod stuff some of you guys are talking about? This is the first I'm hearing about it.
 
Zeke said:
so whats with this subscription based cod stuff some of you guys are talking about? This is the first I'm hearing about it.
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http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=387280

Infinity Ward may have tried to distance itself from the rumors about the Call of Duty franchise going down Subscription Lane™, but Activision head honcho Bobby Kotick said otherwise during the publishing giant's recent earnings call. "If you think about the success that we've had in other product categories on subscription, you can get a sense of the direction that we want to take that franchise," he said.
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