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

Wario64 said:
"Infinity Ward remains central to Call of Duty's future and we rely on the combined talent, expertise and leadership of the team there for its success."
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Well they just got rid of the leadership part. :lol
 
Kifimbo said:
Unless your back this with quotes and sources, stop spewing bullshit. Public record ? Where ?
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I think refusing to show Activision the game they're paying for falls under that, don't you? And that quote is from Robert Bowling.
 
Though this is all just speculation since nobody outside IW/Activision knows why all of this went down - this does somewhat smell like IW standing up to Activision trying to milk the hell out of the franchise. Considering IW's past public flaming regarding World at War and so on - it's not hard to see that they're just very defensive about the only franchise they have :p

Especially considering Activision's 'lets milk this shit dry'-press release that popped up hours after the turmoil - it seems quite logical that both studio heads were aware of this. Can't really blame them either to be completely honest - let's not forget what Activision did with Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero recently ....
 
Massa said:
I think refusing to show Activision the game they're paying for falls under that, don't you? And that quote is from Robert Bowling.
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I'm sorry... In this entire chain of replies to the original benita comment here
benita said:
Ugh. Typical GAF grandstanding in this thread.

It's a matter of public record that Infinity Ward have been acting like a bag of cunts for a while now. Success doesn't give you the right to bite the hand that feeds you.
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I don't see a "quote" that could be "from Robert Bowling." So... WTF are you talking about?
 
benita said:
I can't believe there are people with such poor reading comprehension.
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I think many of us are still waiting for quotes, man. Where are the quotes regarding IW's prior behavior?
 
Evlar said:
I'm sorry... In this entire chain of replies to the original benita comment here

I don't see a "quote" that could be "from Robert Bowling." So... WTF are you talking about?
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Ok, "bag of cunts" is a completely inexcusable thing to say. That said, I don't think Infinity Ward are saints and Activision is the devil. I do hope things work out for the best, the devs at IW don't deserve to take the hit for the mess made by these executives.

The interview where IW confirmed they refused to show MW2 to Activision was linked in this thread a few pages ago. Here.
 
ChiTownBuffalo said:
Well when my mom married my dad, I bet she didn't think he'd try to FHUTA. While their terrified teenaged son heard it all go down.
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What if she likes it.
Indifferent2.gif
 
benita said:
Ugh. Typical GAF grandstanding in this post that has now been fixed by a better man than I.

It's a matter of public record that Activision have been acting like a bag of cunts for a while now. Success doesn't give you the right to bite the hand that feeds you.
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.
 
Green Scar said:
I've been thinking. Security guards... isn't this the same thing Nintendo did to Mark Pacini?
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It's standard procedure to have security escort someone from the building upon dismissal, to make sure that they do not attempt any hostile actions against the company - be that theft of materials or trying to diminish morale of the surrounding workforce.
 
Foxy Fox 39 said:
Didn't this happen with guitar hero? and now we have Rock Band?
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Maybe the IW people will defect to EA and make a Call of Duty type game. Call it 'Challenge of Honor' or something.
 
Meh, seems to me IW got too big of heads.

All Activision wanted was MW3. If you want to do something else, then fine, let someone else do MW3. If you want to do it yourself, then do it yourself.

I mean, Activision OWNS Infinity Ward. Can you imagine if a team tried doing this to someone like Nintendo? Using a few big titles to try and strong arm them into doing what they wanted?
 
Nicktals said:
Meh, seems to me IW got too big of heads.

All Activision wanted was MW3. If you want to do something else, then fine, let someone else do MW3. If you want to do it yourself, then do it yourself.

I mean, Activision OWNS Infinity Ward. Can you imagine if a team tried doing this to someone like Nintendo? Using a few big titles to try and strong arm them into doing what they wanted?
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See I think it is the exact opposite. Not that IW didn't want to do Modern Warfare 3, but that they wanted to be the only ones who could make MW:3 or any other titles based on that license/brand.
 
Kittonwy said:
What if she likes it.
Indifferent2.gif
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Guys rarely 'jump in' slow enough even when a woman likes it :lol

But anyways, I think the real story with ATVI + IW is IW needed an ego-check and ATVI wanted to bring development costs further down
 
Vinci said:
It's standard procedure to have security escort someone from the building upon dismissal, to make sure that they do not attempt any hostile actions against the company - be that theft of materials or trying to diminish morale of the surrounding workforce.
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Not really, that is a sign of low amount of trust in that individual, which has its roots elsewhere. People still get dismissed and act civil. It's just a matter of employer-employee relatioship.
 
Evlar said:
No, I'm not fucking kidding. YOU claimed it was a "matter of public record". Back it up. I see Massa picked up the slack for you above on the "not showing Activision" point. Kindly link to the rest, please.
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I JUST DID IN THE POST YOU QUOTED

Do you know how to click on a link?
 
Nicktals said:
Meh, seems to me IW got too big of heads.

All Activision wanted was MW3. If you want to do something else, then fine, let someone else do MW3. If you want to do it yourself, then do it yourself.

I mean, Activision OWNS Infinity Ward. Can you imagine if a team tried doing this to someone like Nintendo? Using a few big titles to try and strong arm them into doing what they wanted?
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That seems to get lost here. But you are right.
 
Nicktals said:
Meh, seems to me IW got too big of heads.

All Activision wanted was MW3. If you want to do something else, then fine, let someone else do MW3. If you want to do it yourself, then do it yourself.

I mean, Activision OWNS Infinity Ward. Can you imagine if a team tried doing this to someone like Nintendo? Using a few big titles to try and strong arm them into doing what they wanted?
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But it's in a contract written up years ago. Which Activision wanted to get out of by demanding IW lay off people (if Gamasutra/Kotaku's articles are to be believed).
 
Vinci said:
It's standard procedure to have security escort someone from the building upon dismissal, to make sure that they do not attempt any hostile actions against the company - be that theft of materials or trying to diminish morale of the surrounding workforce.
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Ah, I see. Now I know (and that's half the battle, yadda yadda)
 
Evlar said:
No, I'm not fucking kidding. YOU claimed it was a "matter of public record". Back it up. I see Massa picked up the slack for you above (thanks) on the "not showing Activision" point. Kindly link to the rest, please.
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It happened; it's not something he made up on the spot. There were GAF threads. That said, I think they were being bitchy because they had to deal with Activision and didn't want to bend over like the other companies do.
 
Nicktals said:
Meh, seems to me IW got too big of heads.

All Activision wanted was MW3. If you want to do something else, then fine, let someone else do MW3. If you want to do it yourself, then do it yourself.

I mean, Activision OWNS Infinity Ward. Can you imagine if a team tried doing this to someone like Nintendo? Using a few big titles to try and strong arm them into doing what they wanted?
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Infinity Ward clearly cares about their franchise and does not want to run it into the ground like Activision obviously wants to do.

Activision is pretty much like alien planet suckers that destroy every planet they come to, and after that one is dead they try and find another to bleed dry.
 
Castor Krieg said:
Not really, that is a sign of low amount of trust in that individual, which has its roots elsewhere. People still get dismissed and act civil. It's just a matter of employer-employee relatioship.
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I've seen people fired from two different companies that I've worked for in the past - and every time, those people were escorted out. These were respected, well-liked people. It's not always security that does it; often, it might simply be their supervisor, but in every case they were allowed to pack up their offices and then escorted from the premises.
 
Either way IW was/is a shadow of it's former self (IMO and a lot of others). Maybe it was time for everyone to start fresh? Sucks that things have seemingly gone down in a really shitty way.
 
Tempy said:
But it's in a contract written up years ago. Which Activision wanted to get out of by demanding IW lay off people (if Gamasutra/Kotaku's articles are to be believed).
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wow, that's some really messed up stuff if true.
 
Trojita said:
Infinity Ward clearly cares about their franchise and does not want to run it into the ground like Activision obviously wants to do.

Activision is pretty much like alien planet suckers that destroy every planet they come to, and after that one is dead they try and find another to bleed dry.
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So Activision should be renamed Galactus?
 
Garjon said:
Isn't that the guy Bowling claimed wasn't even properly involved in making Treyarch's games; a producer?
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I have no idea if this is true or not. However, PRODUCERS work on games. Claiming otherwise is assuming games magically assemble themselves out of goodwill and disparate components.
 
Tempy said:
It happened; it's not something he made up on the spot. There were GAF threads. That said, I think they were being bitchy because they had to deal with Activision and didn't want to bend over like the other companies do.
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I'm not calling into question that it happened.
 
Garjon said:
Isn't that the guy Bowling claimed wasn't even properly involved in making Treyarch's games; a producer?
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No. I believe Treyarch themselves said that. (Maybe 402 did as well?)
 
Garjon said:
Isn't that the guy Bowling claimed wasn't even properly involved in making Treyarch's games; a producer?
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Robert Bowling works for Infinity Ward, not Treyarch. Treyarch has their own community manager named Josh Olin.
 
Rayme said:
No. I believe Treyarch themselves said that. (Maybe 402 did as well?)
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Treyarch's statement was this it seems: http://kotaku.com/5020917/treyarch-offers-apologies-to-gearbox-software

Kotaku said:
JD, Community Manager here at Treyarch wrote on the official Xbox forums of the Gearbox-aimed slam, "We want to let everyone know that we found those remarks offensive, and they do not in any way represent the feelings of any developer at this studio or at Activision. We hold all of our peers in the development community in the highest regard. We have nothing but respect for the guys and gals at Gearbox."
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Also best of luck. Hopefully things go well for you.
 
So reading between the lines, Activision is going to parachute some new puppet studio heads into IW who will do their bidding without kicking up a fuss (ie make COD play house adventure land).

Look for mass exodus of IW employees soon.
 
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