Game Industry News

Game broadband package with lower pings and less packet loss

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 15:29:54 +0100

Demon Internet has launched a new product which will be of interest to World of Warcraft or Modern Warfare 2 addicts, or indeed any online gamers.

The new Game Pro broadband package promises prioritised bandwidth, with lower pings and less packet loss, to make for a smoother and less lagged online gaming experience. You’ll pay for this privilege, naturally, at £22 per month, which is £3 per month more than normal customers on Demon’s up to 20Mbps (1Mbps upstream) package. That’s on a year long contract.

Of course, this raises the spectre of net neutrality, which has been floating about and making a lot of groaning noises this month courtesy of Google and Verizon’s recommendations on the subject. Net neutrality is the concept that the Internet should remain a level playing field for all content, with no fast lanes or channels. Activists argue that the extra charges these will draw could lead to the creation of an Internet of haves and have-nots.

Demon told that because it has mostly business customers, and sees heavier usage during the day, it can afford to set aside more bandwidth in the evenings when Joe Gamer is most likely to be playing, without effecting the quality of current subscribers’ bandwidth.

And Demon isn’t the first ISP to offer an online gaming tailored broadband package. Aquiss has a range of gaming options which start from £25 per month.

PC gamers vs Console gamers

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 03:32:49 +0100

_by_Iscariot

Have you ever gone over to a friends house and played CoD on his 360? How many times have you lost and said: “if I had a mouse and keyboard you’d have no chance”? Well, through the grapevine, it seems that Microsoft has acknowledged this. Sadly, the chance to finally destroy your console friends may never see the light of day.

Rumour has it that a section of Microsoft called “Ensemble Studios” was dedicated the creation of a platform where PC and Xbox 360 gamers would be pitted against each other through multiplayer games as UT3, GoW and CoD. This was intended to be the next step in the “Live” journey, and bring new life to the PC gaming industry.

Unfortunately, problems arose in the early stages of testing. Apparently, Microsoft brought in some of the best console gamers and staged them against average PC players. Yes, I know what you’re thinking. Inevitably, the console gamers simply got owned – and to such an extent that the new initiative would be too embarrassing for the 360 team and community in general.

I mean, come on. How awesome would this have been? PC gamers would have been elevated to new heights, to look down on the mere pawns that are console gamers.

This could have meant that the PC gaming industry at last obtained a well-needed boost. It’s not the same as it was. Developers are flocking towards the console range – because that’s where the money is now. The idea that Microsoft had, could have been the key to unlocking the signet which is the void between console and PC. Competitive play between the two platforms would have been possible, and perhaps even teams which consisted of both sides.

But reality hits hard. The industry as we knew it has changed and damage has been done that can never be repaired. Regrettably, the PC Army will need to look for a new way to prove themselves.

On the bright side, us PC gamers take a silent win over the console scrubs.

Respawn: the new Game makers

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 14:37:07 +0100

West and Zampella talked a bit about the old days and how game makers had to do everything.

But when working on Call of Duty, West and Zampella didn't have the luxury of throwing away two years of work. So the team had to look at everything as a trade-off. If they wanted to add a new feature, they'd understand that there was a cost to that and something else would suffer.

West said the Respawn team now tackles the problem of a new game from the bottom up and top down.

They worked around their constraints and strove to have a "flat" design process, where anyone on the team can speak up about what works and what doesn't, so it isn't just the most senior employees making all the calls.

Playing pirated DS games now also illegal in UK

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:26:15 +0100

^by^debs

A UK court ruling has just made it illegal to play pirated video games most notably in your Nintendo DS.

Game copiers were initially used to back up your game but then people soon shared their backup up game with their friends thus creating an atmosphere of piracy. This has been one of the biggest problems in the gaming industry that finally Nintendo filed a lawsuit in the UK.

Playables Limited and Wai Dat Chan were the defendants in the case and argued that game copiers merely provided a way for people to play home brewed games. Justice Floyd on the other hand pointed out that this reason alone cannot be used as a defense.

Nintendo DS users play pirated games with (now illegal) R4 cards.

The court pointed out that game copiers first bypass the security settings of Nintendo before any home brewed game could be played. The mere fact that the security settings were breached makes it illegal.

How do these game copiers work? These are actually chips that fit into the Nintendo DS cartridge slot. Once booted up it then disables the security system of the gaming device thus enabling people to play pirated games. It is normal for people with game copiers to hold lots of pirated and home brew video game titles stored in their memory card.

Just recently the Netherlands also made the same ruling making it unlawful to import and sell game copiers.

Nintendo is pleased with the way the High Court ruled citing that these game copiers really does a substantial effect on their gaming sales.

13 million Xbox Live users pay to play Call of Duty online

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:15:45 +0100

On june 30th Microsoft's Xbox Live online video game platform has generated an estimated $1 billion in revenue.

The software giant informed that almost half of the 25 million Xbox Live users had paid an annual subscription fee to play online games like 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2', amassing $600 million in revenue.

The company said that the $1 billion revenue mark was reached thanks to the rise in sales of extra game levels, avatars accessories and films.

The business generated more than $1.2 billion in sales last year, exceeding analysts’ estimates. Success in online gaming is crucial for Microsoft because the other products in this unit include the barely profitable Xbox game console and mobile-phone software that’s losing ground to Apple Inc. and Google Inc.

To boost future revenue, Xbox Live struck content deals with Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN and Activision Blizzard Inc. and introduced a family subscription that gives four memberships for the price of two. Its Kinect device, which lets users play games by movement rather than with a controller, will also fuel sales, Friar said. Microsoft probably can increase Xbox Live sales by a rate of “mid-teens to 20 percent” a year, she said.

Activision says Xbox Live is the only online gaming business -- except for Activision’s own personal-computer based “World of Warcraft” franchise -- that generates substantial money.

“When it comes to online gaming, they’re the only significant alternative to us,” says Activision Chief Executive Officer Bobby Kotick, whose “Call of Duty” titles have 50 million registered online players.

Success may breed increased demands from content providers to share more revenue. Already Activision says it wants a cut of the take from subscriptions, not just the percentage it currently gets from its content sold through the service.

Activision don't want to use Xbox Kinect or PS3 Move

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:07:14 +0100

^by^{Claire Claws}

Not only the Call of Duty fan base is struggling with the snotty attitude from Activision.

This time Activision is convinced that the high prices for the new peripherals are going to prevent people from adopting the new technology. So don’t expect to see Call of Duty or Guitar Hero using Playstation Move or Xbox 360 Kinect any time soon.

In the past it was always CEO Kotick who gave, in interviews, his unwanted and biased advice to Microsoft and Sony. That they had to lower their prices of their consoles. But who listens to a man with only one objective; making more money with his Activision?

Now it is COO Thomas Tippl who told Gamasutra that Activision is hesitant to dive into the motion market, mostly due to the high price point of Sony's Move and Microsoft's Kinect.

"I think as a publisher, you have to be concerned about how the price drives a lot of the outcome of how big of an install base there's going to be," Tippl said. "The bigger the install base, the more likely that you can make sense out of your investment. So, the lower the price, the better. In this economic environment, it's probably more important than ever."

Well the new motion controllers don't come cheap, but isn't it something you buy to use way longer than just a couple of months? And when you compare the prices of the "getting more and more popular" 3D active glasses with the price of these High End Game Console motion controllers; the chosen retail price seems to be fair.

By being their business partner (no consoles = no games to sell) you can say Activision is stupidly undermining the way both Sony and Microsoft are trying to compete with Nintendo's Wii. With complaining about the price; normally not something done in public, and acting like being an independent publisher, who doesn't know if or when the successful franchise, Call of Duty, will support these motion controllers. So great help from Actvision to launch a risky project...... not.

PlayStation Move debuts on September 19th. The main Move controller will cost $49.99, and the navigation controller $29.99.
The Microsoft Kinect Motion Sensor Launches November 4th 2010 and will cost $149.

But what about the retail price for the next Call of Duty title: Black Ops? And remember the "the lower the price, the better. In this economic environment, it's probably more important than ever." used by Tippl.

Last year the RRP went up and the weak pound, weak dollar and strong euro got blamed for that. But don't expect to pay less this year; the currency market never gets used to lower the prices. So the price for CoD: Black Ops stays the same as it was for Modern Warfare 2 and so still being the highest of ALL today's games.

When you live in the UK maybe you can be lucky again; last year's price wars and trade-in deals on the UK High Street made that some BIG retailers lost a lot of money by selling Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 below the cost price !!!

I would love to read what advice Kotick and Tippl would give to Tesco, Sainsbury's and ASDA .

Thomas Tippl wants to improve Activision's image...

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 23:45:46 +0100

_by_Vrandas

Tippl says he is “not ignorant of very vocal minority that has some very strong feelings”.

Very vocal minority ?????

Activision and their game developers are dominating the Google News Headlines with less then 6 talking heads and the majority of the CoD buying community can only ventilate their feelings on an official but censored CoD forum. These official CoD forums are made 'not-crawlable" for all search engines !

So 100.000x of frustrated (let's say) Cal of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 players won't even get noticed when they all complain about the fact they are unable to play this expensive CoD game they just bought. Also the justified disappointment, because this last CoD title had some original working features removed and replaced by non working alternatives ( like those 'new' multi player client-host servers ), wasn't picked up by any of the major Gaming News Headlines writers.

So for years now, all Google News about the Call of Duty games gets written by the Activision's Public Relations/Marketing department. And 100.000x Activision customers don't get their honest opinion equally publiced so they can warn others not to make the same mistake.

“Obviously, we stay connected to what's going on in the communities so we're not ignorant that there's a very vocal minority out there that has some very strong feelings,” Activision's COO Thomas Tippl told IGN.

“Whenever you become no.1 in any industry, you automatically get a target painted on your back. You've got to be able to live with that. "

What is this paranoid feeling Tipple is talking about? Is the overall judgement from the (PC) gamers, that CoD Modern Warfare 2 was/is a BIG disappointment, to much honesty for him to handle? Will turning this majority into a "minority with strong feelings" create a better relationship between makers and buyers in the near future?

The CoD Community always said:

"Give us the game WE want and we will pay twice the amount of money YOU want."

But, with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Actvision again showed that they preferred working with PR lies & Wallstreet dreams instead of just listening to their customers needs. And although the MW2 revenue was a record breaker, especially in the first week after its release (thanks to the well funded PR machine), that was it. Modern Warfare 2 didn't became a hype. And this only because most of the buyers wouldn't suggest this game to their friends and by not doing so there was no next huge wave of sales. So Activision still made a lot of money but also lost something very important for a successful franchise: future buyers.

So it's best to wait till after the actual release of Call of Duty: Black Ops to find out if this next CoD game is an improvement and worth buying.

(And this must be Mister Tippl's current problem to deal with.... the amount of CoD Black Ops pre-orders.)

Only better games can fix Activision's bad reputation of releasing unplayable games .

Kotick: "Call of Duty with an online subscription service..."

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 21:27:33 +0100

_by_Vrandas

In an other recent interview Activision CEO, Bobby Kotick, was asked what he would like to change. And, of course, he picked something we, the CoD Gamers, want. His actual words are that we "are clamoring for it..."

The Kotick interview in the Wall Street Journal (Duhhh... what did you expect ??) :

-----

WSJ: If you could snap your fingers, and instantly make one change in your company, what would it be, and why?

Kotick: I would have Call of Duty be an online subscription service tomorrow. When you think about what the audience’s interests are and how you could really satisfy bigger audiences with more inspired, creative opportunities, I would love to see us have an online Call of Duty world. I think our players would just have so much of a more compelling experience.

WSJ: Is that coming?

Kotick: Hopefully.

WSJ: Are the customers ready for it?

Kotick: I think our audiences are clamoring for it. If you look at what they’re playing on Xbox Live today, we’ve had 1.7 billion hours of multiplayer play on Live. I think we could do a lot more to really satisfy the interests of the customers. I think we could create so many things, and make the game even more fun to play. We haven’t really had a chance to do that yet, so that would be my snap of the fingers.

My opinion is that most CoD gamers love to claymore this idea !

Is B. Kotick really thinking that Call of Duty gamers are the same as WoW players ???

"... how you could really satisfy bigger audiences with more inspired, creative opportunities,..."

Like that flying horse Activision/Blizzard recently started to sell to their World of Warcraft kids for 20 EURO ???

This in-game horse made Activision/Blizzard 2 million dollars in first 4 hours.

So does he mean that HE wants to sell in-game outfits or weapons to the CoD Fanbase ?

"... I think we could do a lot more to really satisfy the interests of the customers. ..."

Well Kotick is spot on with that one. But for this there is no need for an online subscription service....

Just sell us a well working game without HEAPS of errors.

For those who just tuned in : CoD Modern Warfare 2 = AN ONLINE MISERY !!!

E3 2010: PlayStation Move debuts on September 19th

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:45:31 +0100

The motion control hardware 'PlayStation Move' will be out in September 2010.

Consumers can purchase the main Move controller for $49.99, and the navigation controller for $29.99.

Some First impressions by Brett Molina

The principle applies to just about any new piece of tech hardware: it is only as good as the software it features. The PlayStation Move is no different. Having tried out Sony's motion control device during E3, it's pretty entertaining thanks to a solid collection of titles, although not every game is a great fit.

The primary piece to Move is the main controller, which looks like a microphone with a glowing bulb on top. At the center is the Move button, which players will use most often. Surrounding this are the four face buttons PlayStation 3 users are accustomed to seeing on a standard controller. On the opposite side is a trigger, while the select and start buttons are placed on the side.

Move also features a secondary navigation controller with an analog stick, directional pad, two shoulder buttons that sit near the top, and X and circle buttons. Both controllers are wireless and feel extremely light.

Overall, Move feels responsive, and the PlayStation Eye camera seems to track movements well. For a better idea of what Move had to offer, here's a rundown of some of the games I experimented with.

The Fight: Lights Out. My favorite of the bunch. The game tracks any punch thrown using the two main controllers, from uppercuts to hooks. Players can raise the controller up and slam down for a hammer punch, or bring their hand across their body and move sideways for a backhanded strike. To head butt, players hold both controllers in front of them, press the triggers and quickly pull in. The Move buttons allow players to slide left or right.

The Shoot. A straightforward rails shooter set inside a series of themed movie sets, ranging from a Haunted House Party to Robot Rebellion. Most of the action is a simple point-and-shoot mechanic using the main controller, but players can perform special moves as well. A quick jab performs a melee attack, while pointing the controller toward the floor and firing performs an shockwave attack striking multiple foes. Shooting precisely felt comfortable.

Start The Party!. A fun party title featuring about 20 different mini-games. The interface places the player themselves on screen framed within the game. One mini-game requires players to move baby birds to their nest using a portable fan, while another has players swatting bugs. Players can turn their wrist to hold objects at different angles. It's a very entertaining game to play with a group.

SOCOM 4. It's hard to say whether this tactical military shooter is a great fit. Part of the problem stems from trying to maintain controls meant for a standard controller on Move. Aiming and firing wasn't too bad, but managing other tasks felt awkward at times. Reaching for that directional pad on the navigation controller during a firefight was not very fun.

Sony says more than 20 titles will be released by March 2011 that will feature Move functionality. Among the games are Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 and Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition.

Bobby Kotick sells own Activision shares

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:53:36 +0100

^by^{Claire Claws}

November 2009 :

As Activision announced a $550 million five-day gross for the game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, CEO Bobby Kotick was again exercising his stock options, selling 1.68 million shares for a total of about $17 million.

And this was the second time in a few days Kotick sold shares; the week before, he netted himself $20 million on the day of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's launch.

A large quantity of stock vested for the Activision CEO in 2000, when the options were valued at the comparatively meager price of $1.035 per share. Now Kotick sold this latest round for prices ranging from from $11.61 to $11.72 per share, according to an SEC filing.

In August 2009, when Activision was trading slightly higher, at $12.44, Kotick already sold a volume of 2 million shares and brought in nearly $25 million gross.

Now look at the dips in next chart...... Who do you think can make the price drop after selling large volumes of ATVI stock ?

And Kotick isn't the only one from Activision who owns some big volumes of Activision stock.

Btw. If you don't understand why we are in a global recession. The above chart is like a blue-print for all other companies that handed out large stock volumes as bonuses to their CEO's. Fresh investor's money goes straight into the pockets of current or even former CEO's.

Also, on this moment, the main targets to sell products to are teenage boys and girls. Because today's parents just can't resist to loan some more to make their children happy.

So Kotick keeps pushing the prices for Actvision games up and up and up..... This recession is far from over.

Activision's Kotick lies about "just a share of used games market"

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 23:53:40 +0100

_{by Claire Claws}

Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick talked to investors at the E3 2010 Game Expo :

"Today there’s a $3bn used game market that we do not participate in. If we look at the share of market we have, there’s a $500m opportunity for us in used games. We want to partner with our retailers to allow them to provide products as usual but where we get to participate in the revenue streams."

Is Kotick claiming earnings from the used games sales or does he mean something completely different ?

Money. Kotick is always talking about money and how Activision wants to get more revenue from every game they sell in the future.

Game Publisher Electronic Arts already has been succesfuly experimenting with ways to bring in revenue from the 'used games' market. So Kotick just need to copy this to get fresh money in. So he thinks.....

This is the EA way and can also be used for ALL Activision games in the near future * :

The Online Pass. The online pass is just a code that comes with a new game. You'll need this code to download a certain add-on and after this you be able to play with your friends on-line.

But... when you buy an used game or rent a game, you ALWAYS have to purchase a NEW personal Online Pass for $10.

So Kotick is not completely honest when he lets all think he just wants "a part" of the $3bn pre-owned games market. With this Online Pass the gamers have pay more for used games than they do now !!!

Because of the current economic situation many retailers need that bit of extra income they now get from their used games section. So will they lower their price of used games ? Fat chance !

And, again because of the current economic situation, many gamers already sell their old console game titles (privately) to be able to buy the latest releases. So?? Will a $10 extra for Activision help the less fortunates to sell their old game so they can buy the latest games from Activison? Nope.

Don't forget Kotick already added 10 dollar to the retail price for CoD: Modern Warfare 2 last year.....

Few options how the Kotick brain works :

Is Kotick thinking :

"Just adding some extra Activision millions to the $3bn total in used game market revenue."
"Retailers will lower their prices so we can take 'our' share of the used game market revenue."
"Less production costs but same or MORE revenue. Higher Activision profits for all new titles."

" I am brilliant ! Taking an extra 500 million for nothing extra. And with this I am also ruining what is left of those small and independent game retailers. BYE BYE Free Market! In the end ALL retailers will be directly connected to me. Soon I will be the Master of the Game Universe. I love money making. Did I already think that I was brilliant ? "

All of the above is a perfect example how to manipulate. Lure the investors in with the promise of still more money can be made.

Recent figures clearly showed that there is NO extra 500 million stretch in today's games market. Sales numbers are dropping and the 500 million has to come from unwilling buyers or from unwilling retailers.

In the last few years Activision bought it self to the top and it needs more money to stay there. Because Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 never was that good and the expensive WoW is turning sour.

Some CEO's are brilliant in talking the share price up. But what if you knew they were selling their own shares? Would you still invest in that company ?

(Kotick Sells More Activision Shares)

(* The use of Steam already made it impossible to sell or buy an used PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 . )

Extra comment by Vrandas

Any "used" Activision game is still Activision's game.

So only others making money with 'his' product is for businessman Kotick something he can't accept.

Fact and sad thing is (for gamers) that the $500 million Activision will claim in the near future, like he told those possible investors, by "just" participate in the "used games" market revenue, must come from the "used games" buyers.

Kotick knows he can't take a share from the current $3bn "used game" market so he means that, in future, every "used game" buyer must pay extra for playing with an used game online.

And this creates a win/win situation for Kotick. Earning a $500 million extra in profits, like he told the investors, is possible; but Kotick lies by claiming this is done by only participating in the "used games" market revenue streams.

Again Kotick pushes the prizes up for playing Activision games. It's sad to see how domination of a market by a few firms leads to higher prices and less income for the retailers.

E3 - Microsoft's Natal project gets a name: Xbox360 Kinect

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:55:29 +0100

Microsoft’s E3 kickoff event on Sunday night was Cirque du Soleil put on a show created entirely for Project Natal, the camera-based controller that will bring motion and voice control to Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

The big news? Project Natal is now named Kinect

Kinect uses multiple cameras to track users’ body movements, translating their motion into game controls. You might control a car-racing game by pretending to grip a steering wheel in the air, or a tennis game by swinging an imaginary racket.

Microsoft will release the Xbox 360 device later this year.

Will this be a revolutionary product? Microsoft certainly thinks so. “History is about to be rewritten,” boomed over the loudspeakers, “Human beings will be at the center, and the machine will be the one that adapts."

The Microsoft Kinect Motion Sensor Launches November 4th 2010 and will cost $149

The next mobile Call of Duty title

Sat, 22 May 2010 02:30:35 +0100

Glu Mobile Inc. announced plans to release the next Call of Duty mobile game, published as part of the company's expanded partnership with Activision Publishing.

The mobile title is scheduled to be available in Q4 2010 in conjunction with Activision's upcoming blockbuster release of Call of Duty: Black Ops and will be published worldwide for carriers and application stores that support feature phones and smartphones.

"Through our close partnership, their team has been able to create adaptations that are true to the Call of Duty spirit and they're poised to deliver a striking title this year."

"Call of Duty: Black Ops is set to be one of the biggest entertainment events of the year, and we are excited to take part in this historic launch by continuing our partnership with Activision to create the next mobile Call of Duty title," said Niccolo de Masi, president and CEO, Glu. "The mobile game will serve as the ideal complement for Call of Duty fans and new players alike."

"Glu Mobile has been a trusted partner and has the proven track record in capturing the Call of Duty experience to mobile fans everywhere," said Dave Anderson, Head of Business Development, Activision. "Through our close partnership, their team has been able to create adaptations that are true to the Call of Duty spirit and they're poised to deliver a striking title this year."

Game industry: Sales down 26 percent !

Tue, 18 May 2010 02:35:58 +0100

_by_{Kerri Panchuk}

The video game industry took a hit in April with game sales down 26 percent, hardware sales down 37 percent and video game software sales dropping 22 percent, according to a report from New York-based NPD Group, which follows the gaming industry.

NPD analyst Anita Frazier said the April numbers represent the worst year-over-year decline in since July 2009, and the fourth largest year-over-year percentage decline.

Dallas-Fort Worth has significant ties to the video game industry, with Grapevine-based GameStop and a robust community of video game developers.

Overall video game sales for April 2010 were $766.2 million, down 26 percent from $1.03 billion in April 2009.

Demand for video game hardware also is down.

The PS3 and the Xbox 360 both enjoyed a unit sales increase over last April, but all other systems declined, Frazier said. "Compared to March 2010 on an average sales per week basis, all platforms declined between 37 percent and 63 percent. Inventory at retail could be playing a role in some of the systems' decreases."

Software sales fell from $512 million in April of last year to $398.5 million this year, as sales of new game releases in March fell more dramatically as compared to new releases from a year ago, NPD said.

Games On Demand service ONLIVE is coming to Europe

Thu, 13 May 2010 19:51:48 +0100

OnLive, the "cloud" service that will revolutionise online gaming by removing the need for a PC or a console, will also be launching in the United Kingdom, it's been revealed today.

British Telecom has teamed up with the American company to bring the service to Ol' Blighty, and in doing so has also bought a small share - 2.6% - in the firm.

While OnLive will launch in the US this summer, a British release date is still up in the air, OnLive saying only that further details will be disclosed later in the year.

Those worried that this means the service will be exclusive to BT customers needn't fear; it'll be available to customers of all internet service providers (BT's stake only buying them exclusivity over bundle deals, not OnLive itself).

More about this ONLIVE and how it works you can find here.

Electronic Arts and Making Revenue from used Xbox 360 games

Thu, 13 May 2010 00:32:39 +0100

_{IGN Editorial by}_{Erik Brudvig}

The New Business of Online Gaming

Or, why coddling a fan base is more important than squeezing out a few extra bucks.

Electronic Arts has been experimenting with ways to bring in revenue from the used gaming market. If you've purchased a game from the publisher in recent months, you've seen the tests in one form or another. Mass Effect 2 had the Cerberus Network. Bad Company 2 had the VIP program. Now the company has unveiled the Online Pass for its sports portfolio and many are crying foul.

The Online Pass is a code that comes with all new purchases of this year's versions of EA's NCAA Football, NHL, Madden, NBA, FIFA, MMA and Tiger Woods games. You'll need it to download certain add-ons and play with your friends online. If you get the game used or rent it, you'll have to purchase an Online Pass for $10. Otherwise you'll only be able to play the game online for the 7-day trial period. That's on top of the money you already might be paying for a high-speed internet connection and Xbox Live.

The anger over this announcement is understandable, but it's also easy to see things from EA's point of view. People who aren't directly paying EA when buying used games are simultaneously costing them money by using servers for online matchmaking. That would burn my britches if I had investors to report to. Ah yes, investors...

Electronic Arts's video explaining the Online Pass.

It seems that two strategies are emerging for how best to approach the online space and the used games market on consoles. On one side you have developers like Bungie and Valve that take great pains to encourage people to keep playing their games long after release, oftentimes at no added cost to the consumer. There's this nebulous concept of brand loyalty that appears to be successful but is difficult to pinpoint how well it translates into real dollars. On the flip side you have EA. Here is a company that notes in its announcement of the Online Pass that, "We think it's fair to get paid for the services we provide and to reserve these online services for people who pay EA to access them."

The whole ordeal reminds me of several talks I sat in on at the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain (DICE) conference in 2009. One of the major themes of that gathering was the rapid transition taking place between traditional retail and the online businesses. Two talks in particular stand out, one by Valve's Gabe Newell and the other by industry veteran David Perry.

In a keynote address about Valve's games as a service business model, Newell said, "If you've got a dollar to spend on a marketing or promotional activity, doing it through your customer base is going to give you a much better return than traditional promotional and pricing activities that you're used to through the retail package goods world."

Perry, while talking about free-to-play games and micro transactions, noted that, "Each generation, we increase our prices and we make the wall go higher. Gamers have to climb over that wall to continue playing. Many gamers and students just can't afford those prices and so we lose them."

More succinctly, word of mouth is very important and not everybody can afford to buy $60 boxed games. While the used games market is lowering the wall that Perry speaks of, EA is raising it once more with the Online Pass. And that is going to price some people out of the online game entirely.

What does this do to the student who scratches together just enough money to buy Madden 11 from a used seller without knowing about the Online Pass? It probably makes him pretty mad. Probably mad enough to tell a friend, whose purchasing decision might well rest on that potential endorsement. Is it better to squeeze $10 out of a random gamer and make him feel like he got taken for a ride? Or should publishers do their best to make everyone feel special enough that they'll want to recommend that game to a friend? There are plenty of places to use micro transactions to increase revenue without angering the fans. This is not one of them.

Electronic Arts is surely pleasing investors and other people that wear suits with this announcement. But in a world of Facebook and Twitter where word of mouth is powerful enough to get Betty White on Saturday Night Live, it doesn't look like a business model that is primed for long term success. It's a model that presumes income now at the cost of goodwill is perfectly acceptable. That's a pretty big risk.

Or maybe it will work out just fine for EA. Having a monopoly on the NFL license does change the playbook, after all. Whatever happens, you can be sure that other publishers will be looking on with great interest at the trailblazing experiments currently underway at Electronic Arts.

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More Game Industry "News" on MapModNews.com

Download service Steam for the Mac has gone live.

Wed, 12 May 2010 23:30:13 +0100

Valve Software has announced that the download service is now available for Apple's line of computers, and it flipped the switch on its online store early this afternoon. The Steam client can be downloaded at www.steamgames.com

Valve will be giving away the Mac version of its award-winning puzzle game Portal through May 24.

Past titles such as Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, and Counter-Strike are not yet available in non-PC form on Steam, although Valve has said it plans to port them to the Mac. Starting with Portal 2, all future Valve games will be released simultaneously on the Mac, PC, and Xbox 360

Mac for Steam did launch with a 63-game catalog of mostly puzzle, arcade, and classic games. Among the titles offered are Peggle Deluxe, Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse 1, Zuma Deluxe, World of Goo, and Tales of Monkey Island Season 1. Also available are Cryptic Studios' massively multiplayer online role-playing game City of Heroes: Architect Edition and Firaxis' historical strategy "god game" Civilization IV: The Complete Edition. All purchased Mac games bearing the "Steamplay" logo can also be downloaded onto PCs as well at no extra charge--and vice versa.

Valve has also added Mac support into its Steamworks development toolkit, which allows titles built using the software to be interchangeable between the PC and Apple's platform. The developer will also release game updates for Windows and Mac editions simultaneously. Gamers on the two platforms will also be able to intermingle in online matches, playing and communicating on the same servers and in the same game lobbies.

Second Hand Games market is more damaging than Piracy

Wed, 12 May 2010 13:32:20 +0100

Co-founder of Blitz Games Studios, Andrew Oliver, has said that the second hand games market is having a more damaging effect on the games industry than Piracy.

He said that because of the amount of times a game is changing hands thanks to trade in services, the royalties going back to publishers can be effectively quartered.

"I understand why players do this, games are expensive and after a few weeks of playing you've either beaten it, or got bored of it so trading it back in to help pay for the next seems sensible when people are short of cash," says Oliver.

"The money going back up the chain is a fraction of what it was only a few years ago. This is a much bigger problem than piracy on the main consoles."

The pre-owned market appears to be growing. Argos, Asda and Tesco have all started game trading services this year.

But.... according to an old (2007) article in The Ledger, the small shops that sell video games have to rely heavily on second-hand sales in order to keep up with their chain-store competitors. By focusing on the used games side of the business, retailers can control the pricing of their inventory, whereas with new games, the price is fixed and a retailer may only make $10 or less for one title. With the used games, buying low and selling high has allowed a lot of these stores to stay open.

With the big stores now also wanting to do "second hand games" the last small but specialized game stores have to close plus it will have a real big impact on the price of new games...

Bye Bye Infinity Ward Employees Update

Mon, 10 May 2010 02:05:05 +0100

The list of Infinity Ward developers and designers now working for Respawn Entertainment :

Jason West
Vince Zampella
Todd Alderman
Mark Grigsby
JP Messerly
Chris Cherubini
Rayme C. Vinson
Jon Shiring
Mackey McCandlish
Chris Lambert
Brent McLeod
Preston Glenn
Sean Slayback
Chad Grenier
Zied Rieke
Ryan Lastimosa
Francesco Gigliotti
Charlie Wiederhold
Brad Allen
Kristin Cotterell
Drew McCoy
Mohammad Alavi

The list of the Infinity Ward developers and designers who recently resigned :

Jason McCord
Keith Bell
Paul Messerly
Joel Emslie
Robert Field
Earl Hammon, Jr
Chad Barb
Joel Gompert
John Haggerty
Jiesang Song
Steve Fukuda
Roger Abrahamsson
Robert Gaines
Bruce Ferriz
Carly Gillis
Mike Seal
Christopher Dionne

All previous articles about this subject can be found here.

On this moment 300 people creating new Call of Duty games

Sat, 08 May 2010 02:32:52 +0100

Activision's president, Bobby Kotick, has revealed that the publisher currently has over 300 staff creating new Call of Duty Titles at the Treyarch, Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer studios.

"Making Call of Duty games today is managed by more than 325 incredibly talented employees spanning three studios: Treyarch, Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer," said Kotick during the publisher's Q1 conference call with its investors. "These studios are among the best in the world. And a position that is among the most coveted in this industry is the opportunity to work at any one of these studios."

Activision's COO Thomas Tippl wouldn't comment on possibly release of two new Call of Duty games in 2011.

"We have built a very enthusiastic and loyal fan base over the years that have very high-quality expectations, and the last thing we would ever do is put a product out that doesn't live up to those standards," he said. "In fact, what we are trying to do is raise the bar."

LETS HOPE THAT ONE OF THOSE 325 GOES TO KOTICK AND TIPPL AND SAYS :

"But Sir... we only have to finish a Call of Duty Game properly. NO errors, NO missing parts. And by doing this we can raise the bar AND make ALL Call of Duty fans happy for once. This new game will sell itself..."

_{Despite losing half of its employees, Infinity Ward studio will still produce the next DLC Map Pack for}_{Modern Warfare 2}_.

_{The next entry in the CoD franchise, Call of Duty:}_{Black Ops}_{from Treyarch, is scheduled for release on November 9 2010.}

Activision's Kotick : "We had no other choice than to fire.... "

Fri, 07 May 2010 00:21:08 +0100

_by_Vrandas

Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick talked openly about firing Infinity Ward's Vince Zampella and Jason West during the publisher's conference call with investors today.

For the first time since the "Infinity Ward Crisis" began, back in March, Kotick told his opinion on the situation, saying that he expects more staff to leave the Call of Duty and Modern Warfare developer; Infinity Ward.

“We felt we had no choice than to fire the two IW executives for "insubordination. There was no gray area, as talented as they might have been”, said Kotick.

He also denied West and Zampella's claim that Activision just didn't want to pay them bonuses, by saying. "There was nothing that would have allowed us to retain them. We did this to protect the company's assets and the interest of our shareholders."

Kotick stated that before their dismissal he considered the Infinity Ward co-founders to be his friends. However he added, "Their conduct was a compromise of our friendship, which was equally disappointing."

Infinity Ward is re-hiring staff at the moment and continues to work on a second Modern Warfare 2 map pack which is due for release later in the year.

Activision's choice to get rid of Infinity Ward makes sense

Wed, 05 May 2010 01:14:24 +0100

_by_Vrandas

Activision's Bobby Kotick knew that Bungie was in his hip pocket while negotiating with Infinity Ward. No need to try to keep Jason West and Vince Zampella. Moreover, can be he wanted to get rid of them.

The overwhelming majority of gamers have no clue who Jason West and Vince Zampella are, and no real desire to know as long as the games keep coming. They did notice a steep decline in the quality of the Infinity Ward's games.

Yes, Modern Warfare 2 broke all game-sales records. But is it a 100% perfect working and amazing game? Nope. And by the time players noticed, Activision already had their $60.

Infinity Ward and its IWNet; no need to keep Infinity Ward on board just keep those 6 IWNet fans as future buyers. Plus that long list of MW2 errors and problems.... By far the longest list of all CoD titles.

Connecting to IWnet problem, P2P router problem, Port problem, Connection problem, Steam Errors, Vista- Windows 7 UAC problem, In game Lagging & Freezing, IW4SP.EXE errors, IW4MP.EXE errors, Text and Texture problems, Anti-Virus problem, Steam overlay problem, Texture Quality Memory error, Losing multiplayer Rank after a Crash problem, DirectX errors, iw4mp.exe crashing problem, mp_playlist.ff problem, MW2 has ended the game for security reasons problem after a player's rank got hacked..... and etc.

Treyarch's Call of Duty: World at War, build with same engine, only had, or better said, also had a Master Server problem. But clearly P2P wasn't meant to be a solution for this problem, on the contrary, calling it IWNet and instead of a few thousand dedi servers now keeping track of more then a million "can be picked as game host - home servers" has now proven to be a bad choice for this nr.1 best-selling video game. The back-end server capacity needed for this ( in Activision's own Demonware data centre ?) was/is AGAIN not enough when millions of players log-in to play. (Release day, DLC days and the daily peak hours.) And this is why players spend HOURS in a lobby or trying to connect to IWNet instead of playing Multiplayer MW2; all gets f***ed up.

The only thing Infinity Ward wanted after CoD4 was to create something completely new. Activision had to use money to get them to make an other Modern Warfare game. Knowing it would be spending some money to make money. And with MW2 being a marketing succes but not being a brilliant game it was time for Activision to invest in a new group of people, eager to make the best game ever.

Community Managers

Mon, 03 May 2010 23:58:47 +0100

_{Wikipedia :}

The online community manager role is a growing and developing profession. People in this position are working to build, grow and manage communities around a brand or cause.

A nice article about the role of community managers in the Game Industry.

_By_{Aj Glasser, GamePro}

Activision is in a tight spot. Even before the Infinity Ward scandal exploded, public opinion stood against them and the company wasn't doing a lot of community outreach to repair its reputation. Enter Dan Amrich, former video games journalist and recent hire at Activision, to fill the role of social media manager.

Amrich started a blog and opened a Twitter account. He produced podcasts, gave out swag at PAX East, and hosted trivia contests. Then, he waded into a Facebook group to engage some gamers angry with Activision in a discussion. What happened next was a misunderstanding.

In the Facebook conversation, Amrich said, "[Former Infinity Ward heads Vince Zampella and Jason West] had very large bonuses; those bonuses are being redistributed to everybody else, to the people who did not allegedly attempt to steal company secrets," he said. "Activision is not pocketing that bonus money; it's still going to the people who work at IW."

These quotes drew attention from outlets like Develop and Joystiq, which framed them as official Activision statements. The problem is, they weren't official Activision statements -- they were Amrich's personal conjecture.

"[It] was inevitable that the lines would be blurred," Amrich said in an apology on his Activision blog. "Problem is, this time, I think I helped blur them. I'll be more clear from now on when I'm speaking off the top of my head, the way I was in that conversation, and when I am referencing official info."

None of the sites that ran the story corrected their posts to reflect that Amrich's quotes were not official Activision statements.

To be fair to Amrich and to explore why so many community managers find themselves in these "blurry" situations, we should look at how the role of community manager has evolved over the last six years. Before Xbox Live's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb -- who holds the ambiguous title director of programming for Xbox Live -- community managers were mostly forum moderators, people whose job entailed monitoring message boards and weeding out trolls.

Once Xbox Live launched in 2005, however, three things changed. First, companies realized how handy it is to have a human face representing their product. Second, companies figured out that having someone connect with fans was a great way to obtain and integrate feedback without having to go through tons of online surveys and focus groups. Third -- and this is where Amrich and all the rest run into trouble -- community managers evolved into the only point of direct contact between fans and companies. The tendency there is to be as transparent as possible, even when it might not be in the company's best interest.

"What [video games journalists] do is similar to what we used to do: interacting with people, bringing information to gamers," Amrich tells GamePro, referencing his 16-year career as an editor at magazines like GamePro and The Official Xbox Magazine before joining Activision. "But [this job] is also its own thing, and that thing is still being defined. It is equal parts terrifying and exciting and humbling to figure it out as we go along."

Looking at how Amrich and other community managers define their roles reveals just how confused both they and their employers are about what they do. Some of them are titled Senior Community Managers, some are called Community Strategists, and some are labeled Creative Strategists. Jeff Green, the "Major Nelson of EA" is called Editor-in-Chief of EA.com -- and not in a sarcastic way meant to reference his long career as Editor-in-Chief of Games for Windows: The Official Magazine.

"What does [my job title] mean? That's a great question," Green says. "I made up the title, and I made up the job as well. It came out of the work I started to do on the EA podcast while I was actually still [an associate producer on] The Sims group. I felt there was a void at EA; I felt it was weird that there wasn't a company podcast. Everything here is very game- and studio-focused and there's not a lot that's happening from the top level that unifies things. So I pitched it, and they dug it."

Since then, his role has evolved in response to EA's shifts as a company from a centralized model into a decentralized structure of studio groups. He Twitters, he blogs, and he writes content for EA.com that's designed to funnel gamers who go there to shop for EA-brand games toward EA subcommunities that they might find interesting. Green also tries to unify EA by speaking to all the different components of the publisher/developer giant.

What does that make him -- public relations, marketing, or an EA family therapist? It's still undefined. Green thinks that maybe he should be in the public-relations department even though he's not public relations just to make it easier for his bosses to figure out what to do with him.

Take for example the Command & Conquer 4 incident. Green brought home the game to play and got frustrated by his experience with the digital rights management system and happened to Tweet about it: "Booted twice--and progress lost--on my single-player C&C4 game because my DSL connection blinked. DRM fail. We need new solutions."

Like Amrich's Facebook misadventure, his statement was picked up by video games news outlets and framed as "a man from EA trash talked Command & Conquer 4 DRM." Green was reluctant to tell GamePro exactly what happened immediately after making the Tweets that later led him to tone down his frustration in subsequent Tweets. The phrase "wild beast that needs to be broken" was used twice during the interview with GamePro when trying to tactfully describe EA's PR-departmental reaction to the incident.

Increasingly, the proving ground for community managers seems to be crisis situations. When a publisher or developer makes a mistake or when rumors flare up around controversy, often a community is the first to step in and speak up -- which is why it's easy to confuse them with public-relations officials. Major Nelson himself set the standard for this behavior early in his career. In 2004, just before the Xbox 360 launched and back when all Hryb had to work with was a blog, rumors surfaced that Microsoft was going to buy Nintendo.

"It was one of my toughest days," Hryb recalls. "I went onto my blog and said, 'No, no, that's not true.' I got a flurry of calls from [Microsoft's] marketing and PR department going, 'Why did you say that?!' And I said, 'Well, are we?' And they said, 'Well, no.' And I said, 'Well, that's why I said it.' That was a defining moment in the organization when they realized that transparency is so critical and valuable for feedback and just part of the gaming culture."

Grant Collier and the making of CoD Modern Warfare

Mon, 03 May 2010 03:33:17 +0100

_by_Vrandas

When you mention the name "Grant Collier" to a Call of Duty veteran you always hear how Grant Collier was just one of the guys. You could find him on the CoD forum being happy and excited.

But when you read the actual West & Zampella lawsuit it is as if there never was a "Grant Collier".

Strange...

Even the respected gaming website, Gamasutra recently wrote; "West and Zampella developed two of the most successful video games in history – Call of Duty and Modern Warfare – at the Infinity Ward studio, a company they co-founded in 2001. After its acquisition by Activision in November 2003, West and Zampella served as president/game director and CEO, respectively."

Now watch Grant Collier, President of Infinity Ward till 2008 and, as IW's spokesperson, talk about his CoD4 Modern Warfare and his CoD PC community.

_From_{Making Modern Warfare: COD4 Interview}

Grant Collier, CoD4 Studio Director

Collier : We actually wanted COD1 to be Modern Warfare! And then Activision said, "well, you just did a really good job for EA with Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, so why don't you make a World War II shooter?" So we were like "OK, we'll do that, you guys helped us out!". So we made COD1. Then we said that next we want to make this Modern Warfare shooter this time. They were like, "Well...! You know, COD1 got eighty game of the year awards, it's successful, we'd like a sequel". And we were like, "but you SAID we could do Modern Warfare!" And they're like, "OK, how about we give you COD2 for Xbox 360? Microsoft doesn't have a Halo for launch, and they want a really strong first person shooter, and they want it to be COD2". So we said alright, and there were a lot of ideas we didn't do in COD1 anyway. So sure, "but after that, we're going to do Modern Warfare". COD2 went on to achieve great attach rate and was the top played game on Xbox Live for 14 months. Now we really want to make Modern Warfare. And still, they wanted another WWII sequel! We said we would not do another one; this Modern Warfare is what we want to do, and what we've always wanted to do. So they agreed, and they had Treyarch do Call of Duty 3. But I don't think we shorthanded COD1 or COD2.

(Well they did. The CoD2 PC version lacked a few key features; like an "out of the box" anti-cheat ! And so Grant Collier makes sure the PC community gets wooed with his personal attention and assuring Infinity Ward will do it right this time. See above video. )

So Studio co-founders Grant Collier, Jason West and Vince Zampella took a risk, moving the popular CoD WW2 series into contemporary times with "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare," and sold more than 10 million units, making it a best selling action title and one the biggest games worldwide in 2007.

But at the beginning of 2008 Grant Collier accepted a job at Activision Blizzard's Headquarters.

And in March 2008, Activision negotiated with Zampella and West and induced them to take on a Modern Warfare sequel. Activision offered them more money. They extended their contracts through 2011. Zampella and West promised to deliver Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in November 2009. Fourzerotwo was already hired to become IW's community manager.

Why West & Zampella don't mention Grant Collier as co-developer of the original Call of Duty and Modern Warfare title is a mystery to us. And when Collier got to work for Activision in 2008 did he give up any rights on Call of Duty and Modern Warfare royalties, if any ?

Complete History and Founders of Game Studio Infinity Ward

Slim Xbox with Natal is coming

Sun, 02 May 2010 23:53:14 +0100

Michael Pachter, gaming industry superanalyst, has given his verdict on the Xbox 360 Slim rumours - it's coming, it'll probably include Natal but it's base price won't be any less than the current model.

A slim Xbox 360 has been frequently rumoured since the announcement of Project Natal, although Microsoft has denied reports in the past.

But Pachter said "I think there is a 360 Slim, although I don't think they will call it Slim since the PS3 is called that. I think there is a cheaper version of the Xbox 360 console coming out. I think it will probably have a different graphics card and processor, and if it does exist they will save around $20/30 on each unit." He said this on the latest GameTrailers Pach Attack show (via VG247).

"They won't cut the price on this unit. Instead they will bundle it with Natal and perhaps a 250GB HDD for $299, see if they can get 8-10 million units out there and make Natal their future platform," he added.

"So yeah, I think a Slim SKU is coming out, but no, you won't be able to buy it cheaper than $299 until at least next year."

Ex-Infinity Ward West & Zampella wanted that Bungie deal

Sat, 01 May 2010 00:40:25 +0100

_by_Vrandas

Next bit has as source the Los Angeles Times.

It seems to us that the LA times gets used as West & Zampella's soapbox...

According to the LA Times, did ex-Infinity Ward bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella push for a deal similar to the one Bungie signed with Activision.

Bungie's deal, which sees it retain its independence and own its IP, was almost the same as the one that West and Zampella pitched to the publisher before talks broke down and they were fired. (This all took place back in March)

"It's astonishing how much money Activision had to pay to cover up its horns and pitchforks with a Halo," said West and Zampella's attorney Robert M. Schwartz to their contact at the LA Times.

Activision countered that the new deal proves its attractiveness as a creative partner. "If you look at the big picture, it's undisputable that we're the best destination for top talent in the industry," said COO, Thomas Tippl.

Bungie signed a ten-year deal with Activision and West & Zampella announcement that they are forming a new game studio and hooking up with Activision's chief rival, Electronic Arts Inc., which will have exclusive distribution rights to their next creation.

And Mister Schwartz ? A fan of the Divorce Court Show or he needs some more reading before opening his mouth again...

Complete History and Founders of Game Studio Infinity Ward

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:50:02 +0100

_by_Vrandas

Once upon a time there were three men who didn’t like working in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They just finished making 'Medal of Honor: Allied Assault' and also didn’t like the way the Electronic Arts's game studio 2015 was run...

So back in 2002 Grant Collier and Vince Zampella resigned from the 2015 Studio to set up their own game studio, Infinity Ward. They started out, as close to the beach as possible, in Santa Monica, California. Their friend Jason West joined them, as did a total of 22 former 2015 employees.

They got their startup money from Activision, a game publisher run by Bobby Kotick, who wanted them to get Activision into the hot genre of World War II shooting games. The Infinity Ward crew had already proven they could make an outstanding game. (MoHAA) And Kotick was always happy to give seed money to game-development teams who were willing to break away from Electronic Arts, his chief rival. So Activision gave them $1.5 million for a 30 percent stake. At the time, that was more then enough to make a PC game.

You want to know what happend next ? Go to read more.

With a team of 25, they worked hard to produce a game titled Call of Duty. Critics were sure it would be just a clone of Medal of Honor. But this game was inspired by the most intense battle scenes in movies such as Enemy at the Gates, Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan.

Call of Duty launched in October, 2003. PC Gamers (and critics) loved it. And the game won a lot of prizes, like the BAFTA 2003 Game of the Year award.

Activision was thrilled with all success and agreed to acquire the remaining 70 percent of Infinity Ward in 2003 for $3.5 million. While Activision now held the purse strings for resources, Kotick let the team run independently. He wanted to “preserve the magic”.

While Infinity Ward began to work on a Call of Duty sequel, the Activision owned Game Studio Gray Matter already was working on a expansion pack for the first CoD title. It became Call of Duty: United Offensive.

And although made by a different studio this CoD: UO version is still for many PC Gamers the most complete Call of Duty version ever made. The PC community loved how they could enjoy this game with their own made maps and modifications. Even Activision joined this excitement and announced a Call of Duty Map-Maker competition. The winner got his map distributed with a DLC game-update.

When Infinity Ward had worked on the sequel for just three months, Microsoft contacted Activision. Microsoft needed an outstanding shooting game for the launch of the new Xbox 360 console in 2005 and asked Activision to make a Call of Duty 2 Xbox 360 version.

Grant Collier, Infinity Ward's head of studio, was ecstatic about the request from Microsoft. His team wanted to make leap from PC games to the new consoles. Launching with the Xbox 360 would erase, what Infinity Ward felt was a stigma, that they were a PC Game maker only.

Infinity Ward decided the Xbox 360 game would share the same art as the PC version, but the control scheme would be very different. The pressure was on because there were less than two years to go before the Xbox 360 launch.

Collier, West and Zampella tripled the size of their studio to about 75 people. Their lead engineers went to Redmond, Washington, to learn the specifications of Microsoft’s console hardware, which was still under design at the Advanced Technology Group within Microsoft’s Xbox division.

Infinity Ward decided to take a very big risk that would characterize their approach to doing big games. Even though they weren’t exactly sure what the Xbox 360 would be able to do, they decided to create a game that would tax all of the console’s theoretical capability, maxing out its ATI graphics chip and its triple-core IBM microprocessor.

The Infinity Ward team finished the game under a punishing schedule. When the Xbox 360 debuted in the fall of 2005, Call of Duty 2 was ready to go. It was an instant hit.The Xbox 360 Call of Duty 2 game sold more than 1.4 million units in its first year.

But the PC version of Call of Duty 2 was a disaster ! It got released in November 2005, same as the Xbox 360 version, but it came without a multi player anti-cheat (!), HTTP redirect, mapmaking tools and had numerous game crashing bugs. It felt as if the PC version wasn't properly finished...

The CoD PC community was furious and felt betrayed.

" Our team at Infinity Ward is committed to supporting Call of Duty fans...." said Grant Collier, president of Infinity Ward.

" We've worked hard to deliver the most epic and immersive experience ever with Call of Duty 2 and look forward to delivering new content such as multiplayer maps, tools and anti-cheat software that will further enhance the gameplay experience."

And 3 months (!) later the promised goods arrived, but by then the PC game was already "dead" because of the many cheaters and loads of cracked servers because of the missing Punkbuster in the original version. So CoD2 PC never was the expected better sequel of Call of Duty: United Offensive !

Activision began to alternate the Call of Duty Franchise between Infinity Ward and Game Studio Treyarch, which had also been acquired by Activision. (Gray Matter was merged into Treyarch)

Infinity Ward still led the franchise by creating a new game technology (game engine),and at the same time they were creating a new CoD title.

In 2004 , the year before CoD2, the Spark Unlimited Game Studio (hired by Activision) already created a Call of Duty spin-off : Call of Duty: Finest Hour (old Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube only). It got released on November 16, 2004

After Call of Duty 2 shipped, Infinity Ward’s developers immediately went back to work on a new game engine, while Treyarch already started working on (console only) Call of Duty 3; built with the "old" Call of Duty 2 engine. They launched CoD3 in November 2006. It did well, satisfying the fans of the WW2 genre.

After this Treyarch had to wait for the completion of the CoD4 engine. Treyarch’s challenge was to move beyond typical expansion packs and put its creative work on equal footing with Infinity Ward and make a PC version as well.

For Infinity Ward this meant they only had to make a new game once every two years.

And Infinity Ward started working on something altogether different: a combat game set in modern times. At a time when the U.S. was at war in Iraq And Afghanistan, it was sure to hit home.

In November, 2006, Activision extended the employment contracts for Infinity Ward’s leaders to ensure their dedication to the game.

Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare, debuted in October, 2007. It was a monster hit, selling more than 13 million copies over the next two years. By this time, Infinity Ward had more than 100 employees. In the game industry, there were only a few teams with multiple blockbusters. So Activision’s heavy investment in PR resources paid off.

CoD4 won big awards, such as the Game of the Year at the Dice Summit’s Interactive Achievement Awards.

The CoD4 game was so successful that it propelled Activision to new hights. In December, 2007, the Activision announced an $18 billion dollar deal with Vivendi Universal’s game division. The merger combined Activision, with assets ranging from Spider-Man to Call of Duty, with Vivendi Games’ Blizzard Entertainment, which had its own huge hits with World of Warcraft, Diablo and Starcraft.

This combined entity became the world’s biggest independent video game company, and Bobby Kotick became its chief executive.

Then Grant Collier, co-founder, president of Infinity Ward, Inc and spokesman for Infinity Ward, suddenly left the IW company. He joined the mother company, Activision, Inc. as a CEO "special projects" and never spoke in public again.

There was no official announcement from Infinity Ward. His departure was quiet, and there was no explanation.

Meanwhile Treyarch grew up into a first-class studio. In November 2008, they launched Call of Duty: World at War. A World War II game, set in a Pacific setting. Art and new extra Gameplay were perfect. The game introduced Nazi Zombies Bots as enemies and the players loved it ! But... the PC Multiplayer was unplayable because of connection errors. The newly developed Client Connection for the PC version was unstable. It got fixed a few months after release... (Could be that, by then, the players-numbers dropped to the point the Master Servers could cope.)

But still....the Call of Duty franchise again proved to be an annual blockbuster. Activision was making billions of dollars in revenue from Call of Duty.

Activision negotiated with Zampella and West and induced them to take on the Modern Warfare sequel. In March, 2008, Activision offered them more money. They extended their contracts through 2011. Zampella and West promised to deliver Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in November 2009.

In return, Zampella and West got complete creative control over any games produced under the Modern Warfare brand name. They were also given creative control over Infinity Ward and the right to operate independently. Activision also promised to give these two men more compensation in the form of royalties and restricted stock grants. The agreement also promised to share money with other Infinity Ward employees.

In a year and eight months, Infinity Ward completed the game. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 launched on Nov. 10, 2009.

Modern Warfare 2 created a huge controversy because there was a scene where the player, acting as an undercover agent, had to accompany a group of terrorists as they killed unarmed Russian civilians at an airport.

The outcry from critics only generated more sales for the game. Activision Blizzard said Modern Warfare 2 was the fastest selling title in history. It has sold more than 15 million units and generated more than a billion dollars in sales.

The enormous amount of errors presented to the PC players was also a new record. But (and this got told just 2 weeks before release day) for many the lack of dedicated servers ( the player's PC is used as small server to host a MP game on) and no mapmaking tools made this Call of Duty title one of the worst ever made.

The Call of Duty franchise, purchased by Activision for $5 million, by now has generated more than $3 billion in sales.

According to a 2010 lawsuit filed by West and Zampella vs Activision were the leaders of Infinity Ward Studio, already back in 2007, worried about the growing interference from the parent company Activision. They were not eager to start work on a Modern Warfare 2. They wanted to do original games. Plus they were also starting to feel Activision wasn’t given them their fair share of compensation from the games’ sales.

On February 3rd 2010 Kotick said :

"If game developers want to get resources and support to make their huge games, they should come to Activision Blizzard. Activision is respectful of creative talent and it appreciates what the studios — where many founders remain — had done for the mother ship." But he added, “If you want to sell out and move on, there are a lot of other companies to go to.”

He added, “Some ego is healthy, but outsized egos should be checked at the door. As Hillary Clinton says, it takes a village to make a game. If you think you can do it all by yourself, you’re probably the village idiot.”

It was the start (for outsiders) of the West and Zampella vs Activision public mud-throwing contest.

Activision ordered a legal investigation into Infinity Ward’s alleged “insubordination” and “breach of contract”. Activision lawyers grilled Zampella and West in a windowless room for six hours on President’s Day. They demanded that the founders surrender their cell phones, PCs and other communications devices. When they refused on privacy grounds, the lawyers asserted that this was an additional act of insubordination.

They also interviewed other Infinity Ward employees; seeking information about attempts by the two remaing founders to contact Electronic Arts and other potential competitors.

West and Zampella got fired. And when they sued Activision for this the lawsuit said this was simply an attempt to “manufacture" a basis to fire them and that Activision was trying to get out of paying them $36 million.

“We were shocked by Activision’s decision to terminate our contract,” said West in a statement. “We poured our heart and soul into that company, building not only a world class development studio, but assembling a team we’ve been proud to work with for nearly a decade. We think the work we’ve done speaks for itself.”

Zampella added, “After all we have given to Activision, we shouldn’t have to sue to get paid.”

After West and Zampella got fired more and more Infinity Ward employees resigned. West and Zampella founded a new Game studio called Respawn Entertainment and signed a publishing contract with..... Electronic Arts.

Half of those who resigned at IW studio already joined Respawn. And a group of current and former IW employees are now also suing Activision for breach of contract. ( All articles about this subject can be found here.)

And what did Activision do ? Activision just revealed new plans for Call of Duty Franchise. It already formed a new studio; headed by Activision veteran Philip Earl and said it would be focused on Product Excellence and Brand Expansion. And Sledgehammer Games, also a newly formed Activision owned studio, is in development of a Call of Duty game that will extend the franchise into the action-adventure genre. Sledgehammer is headed by industry veterans Glen A. Schofield and Michael Condrey. The pair previously created the DeadSpace shooting game for Electronic Arts. And Activision expects to release a new Call of Duty game from Treyarch this fall.

In a statement, Activision Blizzard said, “Activision is disappointed that Mr. Zampella and Mr. West have chosen to file a lawsuit, and believes their claims are merit less. Over eight years, Activision shareholders provided these executives with the capital they needed to start Infinity Ward, as well as the financial support, resources and creative independence that helped them flourish and achieve enormous professional success and personal wealth. In return, Activision legitimately expected them to honor their obligations to Activision, just like any other executives who hold positions of trust in the company. While the company showed enormous patience, it firmly believes that its decision was justified based on their course of conduct and actions. Activision remains committed to the Call of Duty franchise, which it owns, and will continue to produce exciting and innovative games for its millions of fans.”

It is interesting, in hindsight, that Activision vacillated during 2009 about whether to call the new game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 or just Modern Warfare 2. Yet West and Zampella say that their employment agreement says they have control over the Modern Warfare name and any use of their game technology...

What ever the outcome of all lawsuits will be, the Collier, West and Zampella Infinity Ward Game Studio is no more.

_{An article by}_{Dean Takahashi} _{is used for writing this article.} _{Facts added and edited by MapmodNews -}_Vrandas

Activision starts partnership with Bungie Game Studio

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:42:11 +0100

This means Activision has the worldwide rights to Bungie’s next big profile multiplatform action game release.

Bungie’s first partnership since it split from Microsoft in 2007.

“Bungie is one of the premier studios in our industry and we are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to work with their talented team over the next decade,” stated Thomas Tippl, Chief Operating Officer of Activision Blizzard.

“Bungie has developed some of the most compelling and successful games, multiplayer experiences and thriving fan communities, and this alliance underscores our long-standing commitment to foster the industry’s best creative talent.”

“Our unprecedented partnership with Bungie will enable us to broaden our pipeline of exciting new games as we continue to strengthen our industry position and pursue long-term growth opportunities.”

This deal covers just one IP, the identity of which remains a mystery for now. Bungie remains independent, and is presumably free to develop other new IP for other publishers. It will be a new IP; ruling out the chance of Bungie picking up development duties for the Call of Duty franchise.

Meaning of "IP" in gaming is:

"intellectual property," a borrowed term from other entertainment industries, most probably the movie business. This usage differs from the technical IP, referring to big-game franchises such as Halo on Xbox and Metal Gear Solid on Playstation.)
or meaning of "IP," although part of general computing jargon for several decades, only became a factor for gamers in the mid- to late 1990s when PC multiplayer games took off. Likely one of the first games to mention "IP" was the original Doom from 1993.

Now ALL Infinity Ward employees are suing Activision...

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 03:00:51 +0100

Well... almost all.

Current and former IW employees are suing Activision for breach of contract.

A band of folks named the "Infinity Ward Employee Group" -- seeking "to recover between $75 million and $125 million, if not more, in compensatory damages." The group is also asking for another $75 to $500 million in "punitive damages."

Allegedly, the employees of IW have received $28 million in bonuses, and are claiming to be owed another $54 million from just 2009. The rest of the treasure chest is sought for a gaggle of other reasons, ranging from "lost value on restricted stock units that Activision promised would vest" to MW2's "sister games," which seems to include the still-unannounced Modern Warfare 3.

In fact, the group's lawyer Bruce Isaacs contends that, in holding the remaining employees based on claims of larger royalties, Activision has breached those employees' contracts. "Activision has withheld most of the money to force many of my people to stay, some against their will, so that they would finish the delivery of Modern Warfare 3. That is not what they wanted to do, many of them. My clients are entitled to their money. Activision has no right to withhold their money -- our money." The suit's legalese also claims as much, even going as far as to accuse the publisher of holding "[IW] employees hostage so that Activision could reap the benefit of the completion of Modern Warfare 3." Yikes!

Activision has responded to the lawsuit with this statement: "Activision believes the action is without merit. Activision retains the discretion to determine the amount and the schedule of bonus payments for CoD Modern Warfare 2 and has acted consistent with its rights and the law at all times. We look forward to getting judicial confirmation that our position is right."

Activision wins Game Publisher of the Year Award...

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 00:47:20 +0100

_by_Vrandas

Over UK 600 retailers and execs from all sectors of the business attended what is the single biggest and most prestigious event on the UK games industry calendar: MCV Industry Excellence Awards.

And on April 22th the Game publisher Activision secured two accolades, including Game Publisher of the Year.

The gamemaker also picked up the Game Campaign award for its work in "promoting the commercial blockbuster Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 ", the latest from developer Infinity Ward.

Recently Guinness World Records announced that Modern Warfare 2 was the most successful entertainment launch of all time, securing £242.4 million in one day sales worldwide.

Sales... Maybe that's why every company that made money for the UK retailers got a price.

Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, a division responsible for the Xbox 360, won the impressive Grand Prix award at the MCV Industry Excellence Awards.

The Publisher Ubisoft was presented with the New Games Brand and Sales Triumph awards at the industry event, having sold more than one million copies of the Wii game Just Dance in the UK alone.

Etc. etc.

Must have been a great evening...

Hail and praise all who made it possible to sell weak products in huge quantities.

Infinity Ward loses 5 more

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 00:37:23 +0100

Infinity Ward Senior designers Mohammad Alavi, Chad Grenier and Brent McLeod are out, along with programmer Chris Lambert and designer Jason McCord.

Makes a total of... 17/18 ? And 9 already signed up for a Respawn Entertainment job.

All previous articles about this subject can be found here.

When will Dan Amrich be fired by Activision ?

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:15:52 +0100

_by_Vrandas

Direct communication with consumers is not Activision's way of doing business.

They prefer being like the Wizard of Oz. And so, from behind that mysterious curtain, they brief the development studios's community managers when and what to say.

But now one Activision employee worked his way into the media-spotlight and is openly spilling some candid company insight...

It was this Dan Amrich who openly wrote on the anti-Activision Facebook webpage : "Gamers against Bobby Kotick & Activision" that Activision confirmed three Call of Duty games in the next two years.

But Dan Amrich also commented on the intense milking Activision gave the Guitar Hero franchise last year. "I think people at Activision got overzealous and tried to push too much too fast." He continued that the company has taken a step back and "returned to normal," with one edition of Guitar Hero and DJ Hero each set for 2010.

And... CEO Bobby Kotick took a bit of flak from this company insider for "shooting from the hip so often".

Dan Amrich wrote about him: "I firmly do believe that a lot of what he has said has been willfully misinterpreted, but at the same time, he has to understand that the whole world is listening, not just the people in the banking community that happen to be in the room when he says stuff."

"So I would like to see him choose his words more carefully and give people another facet to his personality beyond just the businessman. His comments at DICE intrigued me and it was nice and human to hear him admit some of his mistakes, but even then, I wasn't thrilled with some of his phrasing, and then the next week the Infinity Ward thing blew up."

Dan Amrich expects more staff to leave troubled developer Infinity Ward.

Xbox Stimulus Mappack pricing was a mistake and Dan Amrich would have lowered the price...

So? When will Dan Amrich be fired by Activision ?

Former Infinity Ward lead designer joins Respawn Entertainment

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:58:20 +0100

_{by Vrandas}

West & Zampella's Respawn Entertainment +7

Former Infinity Ward lead designer Todd Alderman has also joined Respawn Entertainment as a lead game designer, according to his Linkedin profile.

The list of former Infinity Ward developers and designers now working for Respawn Entertainment :

Todd Alderman
Mark Grigsby
JP Messerly
Chris Cherubini
Rayme C. Vinson
Jon Shiring
Mackey McCandlish

More staff will leave troubled developer Infinity Ward

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:24:53 +0100

_by_Vrandas

Plan was : 3 new Call of Duty titles in the next 2 years...

Call of Duty 7 by Treyarch, Call of Duty 8 by Sledgehammer Games and CoD: Modern Warfare 3 by Infinity Ward.

But today even an Activision employee, Dan Amrich, has stated he expects more staff to leave troubled developer Infinity Ward.

And he said this on the anti-Activision Facebook webpage : "Gamers against Bobby Kotick & Activision"

On there Activision's community blogger Amrich revealed his confusion over why so many staff have left the company.

“Yep, and that's not over yet,” said Amrich referring to the recent departures.

“More people will probably go too, looking for new situations. Maybe they will join Respawn, maybe not. I'm confused, because by leaving, they are giving up their bonus -- and the more people that leave, the bigger the bonus gets for the people who stay.”

We already used next picture but because Amrich forgets that West & Zampella both got FIRED before they got their bonus, we will use it again...

Amrich goes on to describe Infinity Ward as a “really good place to be right now” for young, hungry game developers.

All previous articles about this subject can be found here.

Activision-Blizzard is making $2.5 million per hour

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:40:59 +0100

Activision-Blizzard released a new in-game item for it's mega-hit MMO, World of Warcraft.

They priced it at a whopping $25. And it the Celestial Mount and it is the first "usable" virtual pet that the company has sold (your character can ride it).

It didn't cost Activision-Blizzard anything extra for bandwidth, because the Celestial Mount came with the last patch. So everyone already had/has it on their computer and it just has to be "unlocked" by Activision-Blizzard.

Actvision-Blizzard are hauling in $2.5 million perhour.

As soon as the Celestial Mount was announced the gaming community fractured. On one side of the fence were the naysayers decrying Activision-Blizzard for pricing the thing so ridiculously high and thereby setting a bad precedent. On the other side of the fence were the people queuing up to buy it. And I mean that literally; there was apparently so much demand for this item that the Blizzard servers had to throttle the purchasing of it in order to protect their e-commerce servers. Or so we are led to believe, anyway. We're also led to believe there are limited numbers of the mount available; artificial scarcity is a great way to drive demand, after all.

According to a post at WoW.com (a blog devoted to World of Warcraft, not the official site), at one point the purchase queue hit 80,000 (and the post keeps being updated to bump up that number). But from reading the comments, people are reporting numbers as high as 130,000 and saying it only took about 25 minutes to get through it (even though a 7 hour wait time was being reported). This is all clearly hearsay at this point, but let's play with the numbers a bit. To be conservative we'll use a queue size of 100,000 and a real wait time of an hour. That would mean Actvision-Blizzard are hauling in $2.5 million/hour for an item that costs them pennies to produce once the cost of designing and implementing the item is covered. And potentially they could be making as much as double that.

Granted the numbers are based on anecdotal evidence and in any case will taper off quickly, but still not a bad day's business.

So what's so special about this mount? Aside from looking cool, nothing. It isn't faster or better than other mounts in the game; it's just easier to get, and apparently World of Warcraft players are more than happy to shell out dollars in exchange for convenience. That's a message that Activision-Blizzard, and a lot of other MMO publishers, are certain to hear loud and clear.

Bad Company 2 is the March bestseller

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:33:48 +0100

_{By Andrei Dumitrescu,}

We're nearing the middle of April and that can only mean that the NPD Group is preparing to put out the sales numbers for March for both gaming consoles and videogames. And ahead of the figures coming out, industry analysts are hurrying with their own predictions related to the previous month.

Michael Pachter, who is an analyst with Wedbush Morgan, said that sales of videogames are expected to rise over the same period in 2009 by about 6 % to reach 840 million dollars. According to him, the biggest sellers would be Battlefield Bad Company 2, the first person shooter from DICE and Electronic Arts, Pokemon with Heart Gold and Soul Silver, God of War 3, the PlayStation 3 exclusive from Sony, and Final Fantasy XIII from Square Enix.

Pachter also believes that the Nintendo Wii is set to post sales of about 540,000 units, which is 10% less than in 2009, while the Xbox 360 will see an increase to 450,000 with the PlayStation 3 from Sony right after it on 430,000. The race is much tighter than it was in March 2009 when the Wii was the runaway winner and the Xbox 360 was way above the PS3 in terms of sales.

Colin Sebastian, who is working for Lazard Capital Markets, is expecting to see sales flat or on the rise up to 5%, telling Gamasutra that “Wii inventories a bit better, PS3 still in short supply. One of the ironies in the video game industry is the short supply of console hardware - Wii and PS3 - even as sluggish sales trends persist at retail.”

Doug Creutz, who works for Cowen & Co., is more optimistic about March, saying that sales of console and handheld videogames will be up 9% but also revealing that April will see another fall year over year, with May and June then pointing the industry towards a more sustainable recovery.

Two more key walkouts for Modern Warfare 3 Infinity Ward

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:36:35 +0100

Brings total exit tally, including West and Zampella, to 13

In what is in danger of becoming a daily ritual at the Activision owned developer Infinity Ward, two more key staff members have walked out on the studio, bringing the total number of departures to 11.

If you include ousted bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella, that number now stands at 13 – well over ten per cent of the developer’s total workforce.

Kotaku reports that the latest faces to turn their back on the company are lead animator Mark Grigsby and lead character animator Paul Messerly.

Longtime Infinity Ward employees Mark Grigsby and Paul Messerly have both left the studio, the team's lead animator and lead character animator, respectively. Grigsby had been with Infinity Ward from 2005, spending more than five years at the company. Messerly was there from the very beginning, moving from former Medal of Honor developer 2015 Inc. to Infinity Ward in 2002. Both former employees have updated their LinkedIn profiles to confirm that April 2010 marks the end of their tenures at the studio.

Former lead animator Mark Grigsby may be familiar to Call of Duty fans as the inspiration for and voice actor of Staff Sergeant Griggs from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. He's also the guy who ably rapped over the end credits of that game.

The site adds that “according to sources close to the studio, morale at Infinity Ward is unsurprisingly low due to a worrying lack of leadership”.

Infinity Ward has previously asserted that ‘morale is high’ at the developer, but the long string of walkouts in the wake of West and Zampella’s formation of new studio Respawn Entertainment is making that all the harder to believe.

In 2003 Activision bought Infinity Ward

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:13:14 +0100

Just for those who are confused. Activision OWNS Infinity Ward

The publisher "bought" the Call of Duty developers in 2003 by BUYING 70% of ALL Infinity Ward shares.

And Activision just paid 5 million dollars to do so.

October 30, 2003 - Just days after Call of Duty shipped, Activision announced that it has acquired the hot WWII title's developer, Infinity Ward. Activision exercised its option to purchase the remaining 70% of the development company's outstanding common stock.

"This acquisition is aligned with Activision's strategy to acquire companies with a history of creating high-quality products which over time can enhance the company's financial operating model," stated Ron Doornink, President and CEO, Activision Publishing, Inc. "Infinity Ward has a very talented team of programmers, designers and artists, many of whom were members of the team that developed Medal of Honor Allied Assault, one of the most acclaimed PC games of last year. We are confident that this studio's development strengths will further establish Activision as a leader in the PC action genre."

Infinity Ward will now become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision, Inc. Grant Collier, Vince Zampella and Jason West, all long-time industry veterans, will retain their positions managing Infinity Ward.

Former and FIRST IW Studiohead, Grant Collier, went to work as CEO for ACTIVISION after release CoD2...

Infinity Ward now lost ALL the Lead Call of Duty Designers...

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 13:39:31 +0100

Activision's Call of Duty Developing Team: - 11

Kotaku reports :

Call of Duty creators and Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward shrinks again today, as more key talent behind the billion first-person shooter franchise jumps ship. Sources close to the studio told Kotaku of four more departures from the troubled Call of Duty developer.

A pair of Modern Warfare 2's lead designers, Steve Fu-kuda and Zied Reike, are said to have left the Encino-based Infinity Ward today. Fu-kuda joined the studio in January 2002, according to his LinkedIn profile, after leaving 2015, Inc., the developer of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and former home of Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella. Rieke had also been with Infinity Ward since the formation of the studio.

Both Fu-kuda and Rieke were listed in the Writers Guild of America award nomination for Modern Warfare 2's story, a group that also includes former IW staffers Todd Alderman, Mackey McCandlish and Jason West.

According to those same sources, programmer Rayme Vinson and lead artist Chris Cherubini have also left the studio. When reached via e-mail, Cherubini confirmed to Kotaku that he had resigned today.

For all who missed the start of this soap... Here are all episodes so far :

Activision-Blizzard senior management quietly reorganized

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:25:50 +0100

_{by Speed}

But with CEO Bobby Kotick is still at the helm to give remarkable comments to journalists and investors all around.

The LA Times is reporting that the world's biggest games publisher has quietly completely reorganized its internal structure without telling anyone, excluding even their investors.

Bobby Kotick is still CEO but Mike Griffith has been named Vice Chairman and will act as direct advisor to Kotick while former CFO Thomas Tippl is now COO. Tippl is the only remaining executive who reports directly to Kotick and will be overseeing Mike Morhaime who has been officially appointed as head of Activision Publishing (next to being president of Blizzard Entertainment).

The company itself is now split into four units with one focusing solely on Call of Duty, one taking care of all other Activision-owned IP and a third taking care of licensed titles. Blizzard Entertainment remains an independent unit as well.

New head of the licensed games division is Dave Oxford who previously was responsible for low budget value games while Maria Stipp is now taking care of everything else that isn't Call of Duty or Blizzard.

The result of the entire reshuffle is that 15 employees have been given the boot.

Activision vs West & Zampella - How low can you go ?

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:02:43 +0100

"West and Zampella morphed from valued, responsible executives into insubordinate and self-serving schemers who attempted to hijack Activision's assets for their own personal gain." states the countersuit from Activision vs West & Zampella.

And the BATTLE between Activision and Electronic Arts heats up further...

_{by Kris Erickson}

Make no mistake, video games are serious business. And nobody knows that more than Bobby Kotick, the CEO of Activision and John Riccitiello, the CEO of Electronic Arts. These two companies represent the two largest video game publishers in North America, each comprising dozens of production studios working on the next hit games for our consoles, handhelds and computers. In fact, when Activision merged with Vivendi in 2008, taking PC publisher Blizzard under its wing, the newly merged company became the largest digital entertainment conglomerate in the world. With so much at stake, its not surprising to find out that there is considerable enmity between the two companies. Total market domination and making friends are two things that just don't mix.

In terms of portfolios, the two companies are somewhat different. But a certain amount of copycatting on both sides has meant that their catalog of franchises have started to resemble one another more and more. Activision has the incredibly successful Guitar Hero franchise, while EA earns nearly as much from its own music rhythm title, Rock Band. Electronic Arts has its own stable of first-person shooters, in the form of the Battlefield franchise. Activision has proven incredibly successful with its Call of Duty and later Modern Warfare games. Of course, the two sides are fond of sniping at one another in the real world, hurtling insults back and forth every few months.

For example, last year Activision threatened to sue EA over the latter's plans to publish Brutal Legend, a game that Activision had dropped from its roster following the Vivendi Merger. EA fired back with some classic advice, saying, "We doubt that Activision would try to sue. That would be like a husband abandoning his family and then suing after his wife meets a better looking guy." Zing! Activision did sue the developer, Double Fine, but the two parties settled their differences out of court.

The latest insult comes as two high-profile developers were fired from their role in creating the Call of Duty Franchise at Activision. Jason West and Vince Zampella, the two CEOs of Infinity Ward, were removed in March after the company determined that they were in breach of contract. Now, the two executives have formed a new company, fittingly called Respawn Entertainment. Their first order of business after establishing the new studio was to award Electronic Arts "exclusive worldwide publishing and distribution rights to future games."

That'll show those jerks back at Activision...

Infinity Ward's CoD team loses two more Veterans...

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 15:35:02 +0100

_{by Vrandas}

Activision's Call of Duty Developing Team: - 6

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward (Infinity Ward studio is fully owned by Gamepublisher Activision) became a little bit smaller today, as two more (!) longtime employees have left the developing studio. Veteran programmer Jon Shiring and designer Mackey McCandlish have parted ways with the home of Modern Warfare.

Shiring worked at Infinity Ward for almost six years and McCandlish was with the developer for eight years, one of the IW team members credited with additional writing duties. It's still unkown if these two will join the new gamestudio Respawn Entertainment.

The former lead men behind Modern Warfare 2, Zampella and West, said that their new company, Respawn Entertainment, will make something that won't be "exploited".

These are the earliest days for Respawn Entertainment. The company of two won't put a timeframe on their next game or even suggest which platforms it might be on. They know, though, that it better be significant, certainly a standard one would expect given that Infinity Ward's previous game, Modern Warfare 2 was the blockbuster of the last holiday season. They say the game will be big and expect it to be treated as such: "A game coming out should be a big deal," West said during the interview. "And maybe shouldn't be massively exploited."

That "exploited" line appeared to be a shot at Activision whose corporate chiefs have been criticized in some circles to talking, during financial earnings calls, about "exploiting" their gaming franchises.

So it seems the Call of Duty Community was right when complaining about the way the last few Call of Duty titles were released. It always felt like Activision's head-office made ALL major decisions which led to lots of software errors and even cutting out new ideas because of the "holy" release date and moneymaking.

West & Zampella's Respawn Entertainment for Game Development

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:54:43 +0100

_{by Alex Pham and Ben Fritz from the}_{Los Angeles Times}

In the video game world, "respawn" means a character that was killed off has come back to life. So when two of the top creative talents in the industry (and recently fired by Activision) form a new independent company called Respawn Entertainment, they are sending an unmistakable message to colleagues, competitors and fans.

The pair, Jason West and Vincent Zampella, who played key roles in the development of the multibillion-dollar military shooter franchise Call of Duty, have been embroiled in a bitter dispute with their former employer, Activision Blizzard Inc., which fired them a month ago in a move that shook the industry with the force of a rocket-propelled grenade.

West and Zampella first responded by suing Activision for more than $36 million. On Monday, they are expected to make their next move with the announcement that they are forming a new game studio and hooking up with Activision's chief rival, Electronic Arts Inc., which will have exclusive distribution rights to their next creation.

The company is initially being funded with several million dollars in seed capital by EA, according to people familiar with the situation. In a typical publishing deal, developers are given money by a publisher up front that they can earn back from the game's sales revenue.

In a rarity for the highly corporatized video game world, however, West and Zampella will own and have full control over the intellectual property they create.

"This is a total reset," Zampella said. "We're starting again from ground zero. It's daunting and exciting."

^{Jason West, left, and Vince Zampella, creators of Activision's Call of Duty video game, (Ann Johansson / For The Times)}

West and Zampella are among a handful of creators well known by video game players. Their creation of a company is roughly equivalent to the shake-up in the film business when Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen formed DreamWorks Studios in 1994.

The move, a rare bet on individual talent in an industry usually focused on big brand names, means there will be a major new title competing for gamers when Respawn finishes its first product in two or three years. It could also presage more independence and financial benefits for the creators of hit games, particularly if West and Zampella win or favorably settle their lawsuit.

Activision fired West and Zampella on March 1, alleging they had violated their contracts by seeking to start an independent studio and purposefully slowing the production of games while working for the Santa Monica-based publisher.

In a lawsuit filed two days later, the duo said Activision had fired them to avoid paying millions of dollars in royalties owed on November's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which has sold about 20 million units and generated an estimated $1.3 billion. The publisher denied the charge in a counterclaim last week that labeled them "self-serving schemers."

Throughout their careers, West, 37, and Zampella, 40, have specialized in realistic, first person-perspective military action games such as Call of Duty, which are hugely popular with hard-core gamers. The mostly male audiences have been attracted to the real-world settings, blockbuster action sequences that resemble those of big budget movies, and extensive online options that let them compete against other players via the Internet.

There have been six Call of Duty games released since 2003, four set during World War II and two, which carried the subtitle Modern Warfare, featuring contemporary counter-terrorist combat.

West and Zampella co-founded Encino-based Infinity Ward with then-partner Grant Collier in 2002 after leaving the studio 2015, which had made the previously dominant military action game series Medal of Honor for EA, based in Northern California's Redwood Shores. Infinity Ward's creation Call of Duty was published by Activision in 2003 and quickly surpassed Medal of Honor in popularity. Activision bought Infinity Ward that year for $5 million.

"It has a certain irony to it," Frank Gibeau, president of the EA Games label, said of West and Zampella's return to making games for his company. "But the fact that they were in this situation was a stunning opportunity for us."

The publisherdeclined to discuss deal terms, but a person familiar with the situation said it has the rights to publish Respawn's first game, along with potential sequels and spinoffs.

"What makes Vince and Jason's deal so ground-breaking is that EA is investing in them as individuals, not as part of a larger, established company," said Seamus Blackley, who heads the Creative Artists Agency's games department and negotiated the deal.

West and Zampella wouldn't discuss what the first title from Respawn might be and whether it would compete directly with Call of Duty in the military action genre, though West did say he expected it to be of "huge, summer blockbuster" scale. He added that they would consider turning their games into films, comic books and other media.

It remains to be seen whether avid gamers who have come to love Call of Duty will buy a new game based on the résumé of its developers, given the relatively anonymous status of most creative talent in the game industry, compared to that of film directors.

Though West and Zampella declined to discuss their time at Activision, they made it clear that after eight years of working on Call of Duty for the firm, they were eager to forge a new path.

"We have learned the hard way," said Zampella, "that the best way to ensure the integrity and quality of your work and make sure the fans get what they deserve is to own the intellectual property."

Resigned Infinity Ward Employees Updated list

Activision: West and Zampella wanted to steal IW...

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 14:40:21 +0100

_{by Matthew Razak from}_Destructoid

So now Activision is counter-suing Jason West and Vincent Zampella.

What the hell is going on here? Espionage, betrayal and backstabbing, that's what !

According to Activision's new 23-page complaint, "West and Zampella's misdeeds formed an unlawful pattern and practice of conduct that was designed to steal the [Infinity Ward] studio, which is one of Activision's most valuable assets -- at the expense of Activision and its shareholders and for their own personal financial gain."

The two men are accused of going "on a secret trip by private jet to Northern California, arranged by their Hollywood agent, to meet with the most senior executives of Activision's closest competitor."

Who's in Northern California? EA is in Northern California. Makes that lack of a comment thing even a bigger slap in the face, doesn't it?

West and Zampella's lawyer has called these accusations a load of crap, but not in so many words. Actually, in many, many more words.

According to the LA Times, Activision Blizzard has counter-sued the pair, alleging that they were conspiring with competitors, hamstringing their own employees, and attempting to steal Infinity Ward. Or as the lawsuit puts it:

"West and Zampella's misdeeds formed an unlawful pattern and practice of conduct that was designed to steal the studio, which is one of Activision's most valuable assets -- at the expense of Activision and its shareholders and for their own personal financial gain."

In case you haven't been following along at home, Infinity Ward is the studio that makes the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare games. After Modern Warfare 2 quickly became a billion dollar property, Infinity Ward's two founders, West and Zampella, were dismissed for "insubordination." It comes out in Activision Blizzard's suit that this insubordination mostly consisted of hiring a Hollywood talent agency, and secretly meeting with the executives of another major competitor.

When the LA Times asked EA if they had had contact with West and Zampella, EA Spokesman Jeff Brown said "We don't have the time to comment on the many lawsuits Activision files against its employees and creative partners." Zing!

Anyway, Activision Blizzard's lawsuit is built around the notion that West and Zampella were somehow conspiring against their parent publisher. This, in turn, is built on the fact that the two signed with a Hollywood talent agency, and allegedly conspired with a competitor. In a written response, the pair's lawyer said that the Hollywood agency was only hired in order for the pair to get good legal council when dealing with Activision. The response doesn't directly address the "secret meeting," though it does imply that if West and Zampella spoke with executives at rival publishers, it only would have been done "…to see if Activision's proposal could work."

It's when you see what Activision's "proposal" was that you begin to see where things really started falling apart. According to the duo's lawyer, Activision "sought to renegotiate Jason and Vince's contract and induce them to forego developing a new game in favor of doing another Modern Warfare sequel." So it's starting to look like West and Zampella felt pressured to make Modern Warfare 3, but wanted to work on something new, and they hired Hollywood lawyers, and Activision Blizzard may have heard that the two met with Take Two or Ubisoft or Sega or EA - and fired them.

It's also mentioned in the suit that Activision Blizzard plans to release Modern Warfare 3 in late 2011. We have no idea if it will be delayed, though we're pretty certain Activision Blizzard will do everything they can to get it out on time.

Finally, Activision Blizzard's suit seeks compensation for wages paid to the duo during their "period of disloyalty," plus damages, and the option to withhold all royalties from the Modern Warfare games.

This clearly comes down to a power struggle for control over Infinity Ward, and the Modern Warfare 3 brand. We don't know what math told Activision Blizzard's executives that they'd be better of firing the founders of Infinity Ward, but we suspect that they put a decimal in the wrong place. And what must Blizzard be thinking, as they watch their parent go crazy and decapitate their sister company due to a "Creative control" argument? They probably have 300 million reasons a year not to be very worried. Or is that 300 million reasons a year that they should be worried?

Infinity Ward loses two more staff members...

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:06:03 +0100

In the midst of all nastiness between CoD gamedeveloper Infinity Ward and publishing giant, Activision, it appears that again two key members of IW staff have resigned. Lead Designer Todd Alderman and Lead Software Engineer Francesco Gigliotti both tendered their resignations last week.

^{Call of Duty Modern Combat lead multiplayer designer Todd Alderman}

This has been confirmed by both men having altered their CVs on LinkedIn, adding end dates of April 2010 to their long spells at Infinity Ward. Both worked on almost ALL the Call of Duty games produced at Infinity Ward with Alderman having worked there for over eight years and Gigliotti for seven.

Despite rumours of Call of Duty developers being "held hostage" over withheld bonus payments, it nevertheless looks like more of those involved with the series have begun to leave Infinity Ward following the sacking of the studio's founders.

Their departures come only a month after publishers Activision sacked Infinity Ward bosses Vince Zampella and Jason West over allegations of "breaches of contract and insubordination". It's unclear what Zampella and West are planning in the wake of their firing, though the pair have signed with a Hollywood talent agency.

The circumstances under which Alderman and Gigliotti now left the studio are unclear, though a source close to the studio suggests they both resigned.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 sets new March sales record

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:28:34 +0000

_{by Katherine Brice from}_{gamesindustry.biz}

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has become the best-selling March release on record in North America and Europe after shifting over 2.3 million copies.

According to EA's DICE, over 2.9 million hours have been played online in one 24 hour period, and the game has logged 230,000 peak concurrent-users.

81 billion points have been earned in online multiplayer sessions and 43 million weapons and gadgets have been unlocked.

"We are so thrilled with the success of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 sales and fan response. In the first 48 hours we had such a tremendous rush to multiplayer gameplay that our servers experienced overwhelming demand. This is a testament to the massive response players have had worldwide for the extraordinary action experienced in the Battlefield sandbox," said Karl Magnus Troedsson, executive producer for the Battlefield franchise. "DICE and EA have brought more servers online. We now have enough capacity to handle all BFBC2 connections seamlessly and we continue to monitor online play daily."

The game is already the fastest selling of 2010 so far in the UK, having snatched the title from Sega's Aliens vs Predator upon its release at the start of March.

BF: Bad Company 2 - Quality after the Modern Warfare 2 disaster

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:37:00 +0000

Gamasutra made a list of online Professional Critics reactions to EA DICE's FPS sequel Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Mapmodnews made selection of most interesting quotes.

"With Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 being regularly victimized by bugs, glitches, hacks and other exploits, there's an opportunity for another game to come in and do some real damage," Dyer notes in conclusion. "Bad Company 2 definitely has the necessary chops to give the current king of, well, modern warfare, a run for its money."

"Destructible cover isn't anything new in shooters," he admits, "but no game I've played has ever implemented it as well as Battlefield: Bad Company 2. In the past, 'destructible environments' meant I could blow apart a few boards or shatter a few windows, but here, almost everything save the heartiest buildings (or pieces thereof) can be shattered to bits, given enough explosive power."

"In times when 'modern' is the word-of-the-day for military-themed shooters, Bad Company 2 proves you don't need to stand at the top of the medal podium -- you simply blow it to goddamn smithereens."

"Bad Company 2's multiplayer modes are more successful. "The maps are brilliant and work across all modes, while Squad Rush is the highlight of the new additions - sacrificing some tactical nuance to cram more action in,"

"So while Battlefield Bad Company 2 has improved in single-player, it's the leap in multiplayer that makes it worth the reinvestment."

So lets hope this game will hopefully win over tides of players. Seems to be an awesome game. Because we (gamers) deserve some quality after the Modern Warfare 2 crew only took our money and left us with nothing more then a heap of errors and disappointment...

The Call of Duty Battle - What goes around, comes around

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:29:21 +0000

_By_{Luke Plunkett}

Infinity Ward Founders Suing Activision Over Unpaid Royalties

Jason West and Vince Zampella, the men at the centre of this week’s drama at Call of Duty developers Infinity Ward, have filed suit against Activision over claims they are owed “substantial royalty payments”.

“Activision has refused to honour the terms of its agreements and is intentionally flouting the fundamental public policy of this State (California) that employers must pay their employees what they have rightfully earned,” said the pair’s attorney, Robert Schwartz, of law firm O’Melveny & Myers. “Instead of thanking, lauding, or just plain paying Jason and Vince for giving Activision the most successful entertainment product ever offered to the public, last month Activision hired lawyers to conduct a pretextual ‘investigation’ into unstated and unsubstantiated charges of ‘insubordination’ and ‘breach of fiduciary duty,’ which then became the grounds for their termination on Monday, March 1st.”

West and Zampella are coming out swinging. “We were shocked by Activision’s decision to terminate our contract,” Jason West says. “We poured our heart and soul into that company, building not only a world class development studio, but assembling a team we’ve been proud to work with for nearly a decade. We think the work we’ve done speaks for itself.”

“After all we have given to Activision, we shouldn’t have to sue to get paid”, Zampella adds.

You now even can read ( it's amazing how suddenly people get so open after they get hurt themselves... ) the 16-page complaint filed by the founders of Modern Warfare 2 development studio Infinity Ward against Activision online.

The Court Documents:

Ex-Infinity Ward Heads Claim "Orwellian" Moves By Activision and Activision's public reply in read more.

^{And of course our Mapmodnews Opinion about all this...}

The lawsuit filed against Activision by two ex-Infinity Ward leads alleges that the publisher of its Modern Warfare games carried out an "Orwellian," "pre-ordained" investigation designed to "manufacture a basis to fire" them in order to avoid paying them bonuses.

That suit, filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court on March 3, was filed by founders Jason West and Vince Zampella in an attempt to be paid royalties earned from the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and to regain rights to the Modern Warfare line of games.

West and Zampella's lawsuit claims that Activision is simply trying to withhold (or reduce) bonus payment on the billion dollar selling Modern Warfare 2. In a dig at the publisher's CEO Bobby Kotick, the suit notes this is "not surprising, given that Activision is run by a CEO who has been publicly quoted as believing that the best way to run a videogame studio is to engender a culture of 'skepticism, pessimism, and fear' and who prefers to pay his lawyers instead of his employees."

The two are seeking "in excess of $36 million" in damages.

In the suit, Infinity Ward's ousted founders claim that Activision refused to honor its agreements with the development studio, agreements that granted the Call of Duty creators creative authority over "any Call of Duty game set in the post-Vietnam era, the near future or the distant future" and any title under the Modern Warfare brand. No such game, the suit reads, "can be commercially released without the written consent of West and Zampella."

That agreement, legally a Memorandum of Understanding, was signed by West, Zampella, and Activision Publishing president Mike Griffith in March of 2008. That MOU, the lawsuit explains, was signed to induce the two to continue as co-heads of Infinity Ward, grant certain royalty arrangements for Modern Warfare 2 sales and games built on Infinity Ward's technology, and to "ensure that Infinity Ward employees received rewards for their hard work."

The suit against Activision contends that the publisher opted not to honor the MOU or West and Zampella's employment agreement, but to "launch a pre-textual investigation…to create a basis to fire the two co-heads of Infinity Ward before the first Modern Warfare 2 royalty payment would be paid..."

"From the very beginning, it was clear that the purpose of the investigation was not to uncover any facts concerning any actual wrongdoing, but to manufacture a basis to fire West and Zampella," the lawsuit reads.

West and Zampella claim that the publisher refused to explain the basis of the investigation, insisting "in Orwellian fashion" that the two "already have a clear understanding of what they have or have not done."

"Anything less than their full cooperation with the inquisition would constitute 'insubordination," which would justify the firing of Zampella and West.

"Activision conducted the investigation in a manner designed to maximize the inconvenience and anxiety it would cause West and Zampella," the lawsuit claims, alleging that the two were "interrogated for over six hours in a windowless conference room" and that other Infinity Ward employees were "brought…to tears" by Activision investigators.

The ousted Infinity Ward heads believe that the investigation was "a charade," citing "trumped up grounds for termination" and "charges that were disproved in the investigation" at the root of their March 1 dismissal. Activision, they claim, had "already made up its mind" to terminate the two in an attempt to deny them payment.

And what is ACTIVISION'S public answer ?

The world's biggest video game publisher doesn't take allegations of "Orwellian" investigations and unfair dismissals in silence. Activision has responded to the lawsuit filed by Jason West and Vince Zampella, the ousted former heads of Modern Warfare 2-maker Infinity Ward.

"Activision is disappointed that Mr. Zampella and Mr. West have chosen to file a lawsuit, and believes their claims are meritless," the company said in a statement e-mailed to Kotaku by a spokesperson. "Over eight years, Activision shareholders provided these executives with the capital they needed to start Infinity Ward, as well as the financial support, resources and creative independence that helped them flourish and achieve enormous professional success and personal wealth.

"In return, Activision legitimately expected them to honor their obligations to Activision, just like any other executives who hold positions of trust in the company. While the company showed enormous patience, it firmly believes that its decision was justified based on their course of conduct and actions. Activision remains committed to the Call of Duty franchise, which it owns, and will continue to produce exciting and innovative games for its millions of fans."

So will Activision CEO Bobby Kotick care about the broken IW hearts of these 2 guys ?

After selling xxxxx thousands of gamers a game that still doesnt work.... Not even bothered to fix the game properly.

No, he wont care.

As always; he himself wont lose a penny because of this lawsuit. And last year HE made more money then Jason West and Vince Zampella now hope to get....

Mapmodnews opinion :

And for completely different reasons.... WE dont care what happens to Jason West and Vince Zampella as well.

They sold their souls to the (money) devil and you just can't win from Bobby; the master in money making.

Come... let them continue their pitiful lives... and play some Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

Activision Publishing Reveals New Plans for Call of Duty Franchise

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:57:45 +0000

Company to Establish Dedicated Business Unit to Focus on Product Excellence and Brand Expansion
Company Confirms New Call of Duty Game To Be Released in 2011
Activision Publishing Plans to Launch Call of Duty in New Genres and Asia

SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 2 2010

Activision Publishing, Inc. today announced new strategic plans for the Call of Duty® franchise, one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time.

The plans include the formation of a dedicated business unit that will bring together its various new brand initiatives with focused, dedicated resources around the world. The company intends to expand the Call of Duty brand with the same focus seen in its Blizzard® Entertainment business unit. This will include a focus on high-margin digital online content and further the brand as the leading action entertainment franchise in new geographies, new genres and with new digital business models.

"2010 will be another important year for the Call of Duty franchise," stated Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing. "In addition to continued catalog sales, new downloadable content from Infinity Ward and a new Call of Duty release, we are excited about the opportunity to bring the franchise to new geographies, genres and players."

The company 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.

The company is also for the first time announcing that a new game in the Call of Duty series is expected to be released in 2011 and that Sledgehammer Games, a newly formed, wholly owned studio, is in development on a Call of Duty game that will extend the franchise into the action-adventure genre. Sledgehammer is helmed by industry veterans Glen A. Schofield and Michael Condrey. Prior to joining Activision Publishing, Schofield was the Executive Producer of the award-winning game, Dead Space and Michael Condrey was the Sr. Development Director on the game. The Dead Space franchise has won more than 80 industry awards worldwide including the prestigious A.I.A.S. Action Game of the Year and two B.A.F.T.A.S.

The Call of Duty business unit will be led by Philip Earl, who currently runs Activision Publishing’s Asia Pacific region and previously served in senior executive positions with Procter & Gamble and Nestle. Activision Publishing veterans Steve Pearce, chief technology officer and Steve Ackrich, head of production, will lead Infinity Ward on an interim basis. Jason West and Vince Zampella are no longer with Infinity Ward.

Lastly, Activision Publishing announced that the company is in discussions with a select number of partners to bring the franchise to Asia, one of the fastest growing regions for online multiplayer games in the world.

Fans fear for the Call of Duty games after bosses been fired

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:36:30 +0000

In a series of swiftly developing events, it appears that the Chief Technical Officer of Infinity Ward, the studio behind the record-breaking blockbuster game Modern Warfare 2, has been fired by parent company Activision. Though the lucrative series will no doubt continue at Activision's behest, Infinity Ward's contributions have always been of a higher quality and so the series' reputation is now at stake.

According to a report published by Activision on March 1, 2010, the company was "concluding an internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward," which would "involve the departure of key personnel and litigation."

The absence of those key personnel will be a concern to those who have been following the Call of Duty games, and in particular Infinity Ward's contributions which have provided the backbone for the seies.

Since coming up with 2003's Call of Duty, Infinity Ward developed three further associated titles: Call of Duty 2 (2005), Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007), and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009). The rest, including 2010's expected iteration, were handled by other developers.

Review aggregation sites such as Metacritic or Game Rankings show that Infinity Ward's games routinely scored higher than their franchise counterparts. Though other games in the series sold well, they were unable to emulate the stratospheric success so far enjoyed by Infinity Ward.

Modern Warfare 2 was the best-selling game in both North America and Europe for 2009, despite its November release, and the fastest grossing video game of all time after making $310 million in one day, $550 million in five days, and $1 billion by January 2010.

Jason West, the company's now ex-CTO, was said to have met with Activision on Monday morning accompanied by fellow studio head and Chief Creative Officer Vincent Zampella. However, neither returned to the company's offices in Encino, California.

Instead, Jason updated personal profiles on social and business networking sites Facebook and LinkedIn respectively, both confirming that he was no longer holding a position at Infinity Ward. Zampella later did the same with his own LinkedIn profile.

Meanwhile, employees reported that several minders from a security firm had turned up at the offices, but were refusing to explain their presence outside the building.

It is thought that over the last few months, a good number of studio employees had become agitated by the prospect of solely developing for the Call of Duty series.

Though it's not known what lies ahead for West or his colleague, he is no stranger to forming breakaway companies. Infinity Ward itself was set up after his previous company were taken over by Electronic Arts, another publisher known for its emphasis on franchise development.

Game Industry News

Game broadband package with lower pings and less packet loss

Demon Internet has launched a new product which will be of interest to World of Warcraft or Modern Warfare 2 addicts, or indeed any online gamers.

PC gamers vs Console gamers

Respawn: the new Game makers

West and Zampella talked a bit about the old days and how game makers had to do everything.

Playing pirated DS games now also illegal in UK

A UK court ruling has just made it illegal to play pirated video games most notably in your Nintendo DS.

Game copiers were initially used to back up your game but then people soon shared their backup up game with their friends thus creating an atmosphere of piracy. This has been one of the biggest problems in the gaming industry that finally Nintendo filed a lawsuit in the UK.

13 million Xbox Live users pay to play Call of Duty online

On june 30th Microsoft's Xbox Live online video game platform has generated an estimated $1 billion in revenue.

Activision don't want to use Xbox Kinect or PS3 Move

Not only the Call of Duty fan base is struggling with the snotty attitude from Activision.

This time Activision is convinced that the high prices for the new peripherals are going to prevent people from adopting the new technology. So don’t expect to see Call of Duty or Guitar Hero using Playstation Move or Xbox 360 Kinect any time soon.

Thomas Tippl wants to improve Activision's image...

by Vrandas

Tippl says he is “not ignorant of very vocal minority that has some very strong feelings”.

Very vocal minority ?????

Only better games can fix Activision's bad reputation of releasing unplayable games .

Kotick: "Call of Duty with an online subscription service..."

by Vrandas

In an other recent interview Activision CEO, Bobby Kotick, was asked what he would like to change. And, of course, he picked something we, the CoD Gamers, want. His actual words are that we "are clamoring for it..."

WSJ: If you could snap your fingers, and instantly make one change in your company, what would it be, and why?

"... how you could really satisfy bigger audiences with more inspired, creative opportunities,..."

"... I think we could do a lot more to really satisfy the interests of the customers. ..."

Just sell us a well working game without HEAPS of errors.

For those who just tuned in : CoD Modern Warfare 2 = AN ONLINE MISERY !!!

E3 2010: PlayStation Move debuts on September 19th

The motion control hardware 'PlayStation Move' will be out in September 2010.

Some First impressions by Brett Molina

Bobby Kotick sells own Activision shares

by Claire Claws

November 2009 :

As Activision announced a $550 million five-day gross for the game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, CEO Bobby Kotick was again exercising his stock options, selling 1.68 million shares for a total of about $17 million.

Activision's Kotick lies about "just a share of used games market"

by Claire Claws

Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick talked to investors at the E3 2010 Game Expo :

Money. Kotick is always talking about money and how Activision wants to get more revenue from every game they sell in the future.

This is the EA way and can also be used for ALL Activision games in the near future * :

So Kotick is not completely honest when he lets all think he just wants "a part" of the $3bn pre-owned games market. With this Online Pass the gamers have pay more for used games than they do now !!!

Any "used" Activision game is still Activision's game.

E3 - Microsoft's Natal project gets a name: Xbox360 Kinect

Microsoft’s E3 kickoff event on Sunday night was Cirque du Soleil put on a show created entirely for Project Natal, the camera-based controller that will bring motion and voice control to Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

The next mobile Call of Duty title

Glu Mobile Inc. announced plans to release the next Call of Duty mobile game, published as part of the company's expanded partnership with Activision Publishing.

Game industry: Sales down 26 percent !

by Kerri Panchuk

The video game industry took a hit in April with game sales down 26 percent, hardware sales down 37 percent and video game software sales dropping 22 percent, according to a report from New York-based NPD Group, which follows the gaming industry.

Games On Demand service ONLIVE is coming to Europe

OnLive, the "cloud" service that will revolutionise online gaming by removing the need for a PC or a console, will also be launching in the United Kingdom, it's been revealed today.

Electronic Arts and Making Revenue from used Xbox 360 games

The New Business of Online Gaming

Or, why coddling a fan base is more important than squeezing out a few extra bucks.

Electronic Arts's video explaining the Online Pass.

Download service Steam for the Mac has gone live.

Valve Software has announced that the download service is now available for Apple's line of computers, and it flipped the switch on its online store early this afternoon. The Steam client can be downloaded at www.steamgames.com

Second Hand Games market is more damaging than Piracy

Co-founder of Blitz Games Studios, Andrew Oliver, has said that the second hand games market is having a more damaging effect on the games industry than Piracy.

With the big stores now also wanting to do "second hand games" the last small but specialized game stores have to close plus it will have a real big impact on the price of new games...

Bye Bye Infinity Ward Employees Update

On this moment 300 people creating new Call of Duty games

LETS HOPE THAT ONE OF THOSE 325 GOES TO KOTICK AND TIPPL AND SAYS :

"But Sir... we only have to finish a Call of Duty Game properly. NO errors, NO missing parts. And by doing this we can raise the bar AND make ALL Call of Duty fans happy for once. This new game will sell itself..."

Activision's Kotick : "We had no other choice than to fire.... "

Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick talked openly about firing Infinity Ward's Vince Zampella and Jason West during the publisher's conference call with investors today.

Infinity Ward is re-hiring staff at the moment and continues to work on a second Modern Warfare 2 map pack which is due for release later in the year.

Activision's choice to get rid of Infinity Ward makes sense

Activision's Bobby Kotick knew that Bungie was in his hip pocket while negotiating with Infinity Ward. No need to try to keep Jason West and Vince Zampella. Moreover, can be he wanted to get rid of them.

Community Managers

A nice article about the role of community managers in the Game Industry.

Amrich started a blog and opened a Twitter account. He produced podcasts, gave out swag at PAX East, and hosted trivia contests. Then, he waded into a Facebook group to engage some gamers angry with Activision in a discussion. What happened next was a misunderstanding.

Grant Collier and the making of CoD Modern Warfare

Grant Collier, CoD4 Studio Director

But at the beginning of 2008 Grant Collier accepted a job at Activision Blizzard's Headquarters.

Slim Xbox with Natal is coming

Michael Pachter, gaming industry superanalyst, has given his verdict on the Xbox 360 Slim rumours - it's coming, it'll probably include Natal but it's base price won't be any less than the current model.

Ex-Infinity Ward West & Zampella wanted that Bungie deal

According to the LA Times, did ex-Infinity Ward bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella push for a deal similar to the one Bungie signed with Activision.

Complete History and Founders of Game Studio Infinity Ward

On February 3rd 2010 Kotick said :

_by_Vrandas

_by_Vrandas

^by^{Claire Claws}

_{by Claire Claws}

_by_{Kerri Panchuk}

They prefer being like the Wizard of Oz. And so, from behind that mysterious curtain, they brief the development studios's community managers when and what to say.

But now one Activision employee worked his way into the media-spotlight and is openly spilling some candid company insight...

_{by Alex Pham and Ben Fritz from the}_{Los Angeles Times}