Former Infinity Ward bosses Vince Zampella and Jason West said last year that Activision never wanted to create a Modern Warfare title - and the studio had to "fight" to convince the publisher to let them create CoD4.
Zampella and West were sensationally ousted from their positions yesterday - after Activision security 'stormed' Infinity Ward HQ in California. The publisher accused some Infinity Ward staff - thought to be West and Zampella - of 'insubordination'.
But it appears disagreement between the parties was nothing new. In October last year, Zampella and West discussed their differences of opinion with Activision to OPM. West even said Infinity Ward had to "fight for everything" with their owners.
Zampella added: "Activision also did not want Modern Warfare. They thought working on a modern game was risky and [thought], 'oh my god you can't do that, it's crazy!' They were doing market research to show us we were wrong the whole time," he said.
So the first MW game was game of the year and sold massive numbers. The majority of people thought COD5 didnt live upto COD4, so how would Activision think another MW game was 'Risky'.
Anyway, it payed off didn't it. IW were right, MW was the way forward. If Activision dont want MW, let IW leave and take the rights to MW with them.
Just to add, the COD franchise is dying a slow death, and is fastly being replaced by EA's titles.
Activision should learn that COD is nothing special, it is the MW franchise that people want. I do not want any more WW2 game produced by Treyarch. There is no way I am buying another WW2 game and am not buying any s**t spin off game either.
although MW2 was an absolute disgrace, COD4 was (is) a classic game, brilliant.
they should listen to them - they advised them in the direction of the biggest selling game of all time, and what do they get? no royalties and f**ked out the door. thats what you get for signing up with the devil.
the 2 sacked IW execs were probably trying to raise the bar again after the recycled MW2, and activision wanted to stick with the same 'winning' (mass market big bucks) formula.
but WTF - sending in security?! insubordination? were they mooning the CCTV?
I think they mean Activison didn't believe in the first MW mate. And the next treyarch cod will be 70s Nam, not 40s pacific. Talking about Nam,anyone want a tug on my shotgun?
zampella and west should make a new studio with a publisher that lets them make the game they want to do and bring infinity ward with them that would p**s activision off.
"We didn't want MW2 or MW1 for that matter, we want s**tty developers (Treyarch) to continue making yearly updates of our games and not have a development company that takes a couple of years to release a superior product (Infinity Ward)."
I believe at 1 point, WAW was outselling MW 2-1 in Europe!
Treyarch delivered well with Gore and tanks, had MW had this it would have been EPIC IMO.
Obviously World at War would outsell Modern Warfare.. considering WaW was released a full year after Call of Duty 4 sales for COD4 would drop slightly as time went on..
But anyway, a franchise has NOTHING without the talent behind it. So many games can turn bad with poor direction.. look at Sonic, Mario Kart GCN, PDZ.
I hope that the talent at Infinity Ward become stronger, and that Zapella and thingy make a new studio if it's right that they do.
It's about time that Publishers became second in command as far as games are concerned. With more creative freedom and passion put into a game, developers can start to break more boundaries and give us new stuff.
This is a great example of why Bungie and MS parted ways. Luckily in that cse both parties realized that due to the success of a franchaise, the big wigs would perhaps limit their creativity and hamper the quality of future products. Sadly in this case Activision seem to think they are bigger than the creative talent and more likely than not this decision will come back to bite them in the ass, especially when EA are bringing back MoH.
You have to question why the guys that started the call of duty games would sacrifice all their creative dignity for the money Activision offered. I hope that Infinity Ward realise that money doesnt equal a good product. If you stand up for what is good about the gaming scene the community will back you if you don't you stand alone ...
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