Infinity Ward & Activision

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Chupacabra
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by Chupacabra »

o'dium wrote: I don't like what IW has become. I don't like how they got so big headed they thought they could get away with murder.
:owned:
+JuggerNaut+
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by +JuggerNaut+ »

"Acti" :(
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Eraser
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by Eraser »

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GONNAFISTYA
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by GONNAFISTYA »

Eraser wrote:First two IW employees left now another four leave as well.
lol @ this:
But Activision isn't phased, and claims there's still "a deep bench of proven talent" at Infinity Ward ready to work on "exciting new projects"
Yeah...a "deep bench of proven talent" that Activision neither respects nor appreciates and will force them to work in "an atmosphere of skepticism, pessimism, and fear" while following Kotick's game production philosophy of being "very good at keeping people focused on the deep depression."

Seriously...the games industry is a small one, where every developer working in it hears who is getting screwed by whom. When the dust settles the only people who'll be applying at Infinity Ward will be the desperate and the newbies. If anyone was ever expecting the MW franchise to improve for MW3 you can go ahead and forget it. The minute the core design team left it was over for Modern Warfare and Call Of Duty.

But hey...Activision and Bobby Kotick don't care if the MW franchise turns to shit and disappears with a whimper...as long as they get money out of it before it dies. And there's always another franchise/studio they can suck the life out of.
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MKJ
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by MKJ »

+JuggerNaut+ wrote:"Acti" :(
it's how they're known as in 'the biz'
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Eraser
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by Eraser »

Eight more leaving Infinity Ward now. I'll bet my money that they're headed for Respawn as well.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/eight ... inity-ward
Chupacabra
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by Chupacabra »

i like that those dudes are still leaving even though activision said that theyll get bonuses that they planned to hand out before. or at least, that's how i understand the situation.

the only unfortunate thing is that i liked some of the characters from the cod:mw series and it's a shame that the main designers won't be able to progress their storyline.
axbaby
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by axbaby »

wish Earl Jr. was here to tell us the full story.
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Don Carlos
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by Don Carlos »

respawn software. Such an apt name really. Guessing all IW guys will end up there which would be nice
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Eraser
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by Eraser »

Nearly 40 present and former Infinity Ward employees sue Activision for $500 million:
http://kotaku.com/5525814/modern-warfar ... uit-update :eek:
Don Carlos
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by Don Carlos »

winners :)
Don Carlos
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by Don Carlos »

winners :)
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Mat Linnett
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by Mat Linnett »

Okay, this is getting a bit bizarre now:
Bungie has just signed a 10-year publishing deal with Activision.
I'd have thought big developers would be avoiding Activision like the plague at the moment.
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Eraser
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by Eraser »

Mat Linnett wrote:Okay, this is getting a bit bizarre now:
Bungie has just signed a 10-year publishing deal with Activision.
I'd have thought big developers would be avoiding Activision like the plague at the moment.
Not so strange. Bungie doesn't become an internal studio like Infinity Ward was. They hold all the IP rights themselves and will have full creative control over their own products. Activision only acts as a publisher here and they're still the biggest publisher in the world with a big reach in the global market and huge marketing potential.

edit:
I see the article states pretty much the same thing :owned:
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Mat Linnett
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by Mat Linnett »

Yup, but let's face it, that's the deal IW thought they had too, hence the current lawsuits.
brisk
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by brisk »

it's been 9 months in the making, so i assume bungie knows the score.

they make shitty games, but i'm sure they're smart enough to not sign anything unless it's in their favour.

infinity ward were made one of the biggest dev studios while at activision and the studio was owned by them. bungie has the advantage of already been a big player and probably had the leverage to get what they wanted from activision, without none of the shit. in fact, the debacle with IW probably meant bungie had more bargaining power than ever, since activison is probably desperate for a big studio to replace the one they just shat on.

but still, kotick sucks etc... i'm sure a lot of halo faggots are pissed right now :olo:
brisk
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by brisk »

oh and one more thing.. the COD series has been hinted at entering future wars for ages now and they've just bagged THE developer who is known for exactly that.

i'm sure they went into the deal with the intention of making a new ip, but since its activision, i wouldn't be surprised if they didn't end up making call of duty: combat evolved :olo:
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Eraser
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by Eraser »

brisk wrote:i'm sure they went into the deal with the intention of making a new ip, but since its activision, i wouldn't be surprised if they didn't end up making call of duty: combat evolved :olo:
As hilarious as that is, it wouldn't surprise me.
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Eraser
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by Eraser »

Here's an interview with Brian Jarrard from Bungie. The interview is for a large part about Bungie's new IP and Halo: Reach, but they discuss the Activision deal as well.

Here's the most important bits regarding the Activision deal:
Eurogamer: To paraphrase a question I recently asked Jason West and Vince Zampella, what first attracted you to multi-billionaire publisher Activision?

Brian Jarrard: Well you know, honestly, Bungie for over the past year has been working really hard on trying to secure our future, and it's been no secret that Jason Jones and our core team have been working on sort of the initial foundations of our next big IP and our next big universe in parallel to the team making Halo: Reach. This is a big step for us, this is a huge chapter, and it's not something the studio has taken lightly.

So, Activision was one of many partners that Bungie has been in talks with, and this discussion began in earnest about nine months ago, so there's only a couple of publishers in the world who could have the scale and scope to align with what we would like to achieve in our visions for our next creative universe, so I think at the end of the day there's a couple of reasons why it ended up being Activision.
'Bungie explains Activision deal' Screenshot 1

Most importantly was that we have a tremendous deal, we have a tremendous partnership, and Bungie did not have to compromise sort of the core values of our studio. We have these seven principles of our constitution, and we stuck by those and were able to find a deal that aligned perfectly.

Specifically I'm referring to really important things to us like the fact that we remain an independent company, the fact that we will actually own this IP outright, the fact that we have a significant degree of creative control and this will be a true partnership for us. So Activision was the partner that ultimately believed in those terms for us, and in return we definitely can't deny their ability to bring huge entertainment to market on a global scale, their multi-platform experience and expertise, and they're just a really great marketing and distribution company, so I think all those things together made Activision the clear choice for Bungie.

Eurogamer: One of the things Activision brings to the party of course is their ability to handle games that have plastic peripherals that cost $100. Is that the direction you'll be taking with your new IP?

Brian Jarrard: [Laughs politely.] Um, you know we haven't got that far into it, but that definitely wasn't one of the initial discussions that we had. I could say that more interestingly to us and possibly more appropriate in the future was Activision's experience in the online space.

[...]

Eurogamer: A cynical person might say that Activision's had a lot of bad press regarding the Infinity Ward thing lately and this is a good news story they can get out there to take some of the pressure off. Do you think that's fair?

Brian Jarrard: Yeah, I'm not going to lie, timing was certainly something we discussed, but like I mentioned the long form agreement was just signed this week so it was... and we have our beta coming up and we didn't feel like it was fair to the Halo community and frankly to our friends at Microsoft and to our own team to have this news overshadowing a really momentous occasion for Reach. So we had a really short window to work with.

I agree the landscape's a little bit volatile right now, the timing is definitely interesting, but I feel like it is what it is - we want to get this news out there. We're really excited that we have a secure future that aligns with our creative vision, and we just want to get back into doing what we do, and have our team focus on making games. When the time comes we'll have a lot of new time to show, and at that point Bungie's next game and next IP will start to speak for itself.


Eurogamer: Does what happened with Infinity Ward make you nervous at all?

Brian Jarrard: No, it doesn't, and I definitely don't want to comment or speculate. I think I probably know as much about it as you do - we all read the internet, it's hard not to follow it, but we're pretty comfortable. We have a great deal with Activision, I think a couple of key points for us again is we're a fully independent company, we're not owned by Activision, we're not first-party for them, we're still our own studio, and we still own this IP for ourselves and have creative control to make the games we want to make. So, not that we would have concerns about being in any sort of situations down the road, but I feel like we're entering into this partnership on the right foot and have a really great mutual understanding of where each of our groups will plug in in the future.

[...]

Eurogamer: There's a similarity between the Respawn Entertainment guys deal with EA and your one with Activision. You both own the IP, you both remain independent. Is that something you think we'll see more of?

Brian Jarrard: We talked about that a lot with the Activision folks, and I get the impression you're not going to see a lot more of that, because to hear them talk about it - and I think it's better to look at their perspective because I have a pretty insular view of these things - but there aren't that many developers out there that can demand and get that kind of deal. I think you can count them on one hand.
Chupacabra
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by Chupacabra »

so does this mean MS sold bungie?

eraser, sorry, thats still till tldr..maybe the answer is in there, but thats the only thing i was curious about.
o'dium
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by o'dium »

MS had an exclusivity deal with Bungie which ran out. MS still own the Halo IP. MS/343 will still be making Halo games.

In short, there will be more Halo, and Bungie will now be making multi platform games.
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MKJ
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by MKJ »

im pretty sure Bungie said Reach would be the last Halo game.
then again they said the same about H3, and then it turned out they meant there wouldnt be a Halo4

this deal with Activision means a (possibly new) gameseries over the course of ten years. if that means its like Halo - about 3 games - good. if that means its like any other Activision game - about 35 games - fuck that yall feel me?
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Eraser
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by Eraser »

Kotick's at it again.
If Bobby Kotick could do one thing, he would make Call of Duty "an online subscription service" as soon as tomorrow.

[...]

"I think our audiences are clamouring for it."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/kotic ... -based-mmo
U4EA
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by U4EA »

"I think our audiences are clamouring for it."
He's beginning to sound more and more like a master troll than a clueless dumbfuck.
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Mat Linnett
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Re: Infinity Ward & Activision

Post by Mat Linnett »

The thing is, and I hate playing Devil's Advocate here, he's right.
I can't believe how successful companies have been in "monetising" traditionally free services.
Xbox LIVE, map packs, hell, even Sony are going to try and ape XBL with their new subscription service (although they may fail spectacularly here as multiplayer will remain free, as will access to the Playstation Store).
Ubisoft started this trend by charging for map-packs for their Splinter Cell games, and since then it's gone from strength to strength.

I think the determining factor here is that these "services" came along just as gaming really hit the big-time. While people who had been gaming for longer had grown accustomed to free content and multiplayer, along came Microsoft and hoodwinked these newer customers into believing this stuff had always been paid for. And people lap it up without asking questions.
It's gotten so bad that companies don't even feel the need to hide the fact that these things are often just soulless attempts to exploit their customers. For example, the MW2 map pack being called the "Stimulus Package", or EA's 10-dollar tactic "Bonus" items often being called "Registration Incentives" when you're installing them.

You may hate Kotick, but while the industry is still in its infancy, and there are no rules pertaining to the fair treatment of its customers, he's only doing what is in the bounds of plausibility.
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