Many people who like the gaming world. or at least Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, might be aware of the fact that Infinity Wards is going through some problems. After the success of the last game of the CoD series a few problems started to appear.
A couple of weeks ago a lawsuit was filed by the heads of IW against Activision. If this wasn’t enough, Activision countered with a lawsuit of their own. Now, more and more people are resigning from Infinity Ward and their future is uncertain.
Kotaku tracked down a source close to Infinity Ward; he/she said:
“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 close source also added:
“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.”
The heads of IW quickly moved on and created Respawn Entertainment and it seems that more than 10% of the 100 employees of Infinity Ward have already left the company. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was under discussion before all of these problems, but nobody really knows if and who is going to create it. In the meanwhile, fans are expecting COD 7, which will appear in the autumn of 2010.
However, another close source from Infinity Ward had a positive look on the companies future and had this to say about the studio’s future:
“First off, yes, it is a shitty situation, but there are two kinds of people left: ones that are sticking it out for the money, and others who want to make something work. We are not dead, we definitely lost original team members, but not all of the talent. When you talk about the people who left, they are the best in the business, but equally everyone at Infinity Ward deserves that same credential. We are here for the long haul of keeping the Modern Warfare name alive,”
Even though everyone seems to be quite angry over the situation, one thing is clear: Infinity Ward is trying to get back on its feet after losing a dozen employees, Respawn Entertainment is a company with huge potential and Activision will continue doing their job. It is not sure if more people are planning to leave Infinity Ward, but the waters are certainly shaky, at least at the moment.