Jason West and Vince Zampella fired from Infinity Ward/Activision
- Thread starter Squilliam
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Confirmed for Asia at least.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Call-of-Duty-MMO-Confirmed-Only-Coming-to-Asia-136522.shtml
I find the whole situation pretty hilarious. Activision is looking to pull a disney on us. Pretty soon...
Call of Duty: The Musical
next...
"You've seen Call of Duty....have you seen it on ice?"
So whos this apparent suitor which wants to jump their bones?
EA?
Take Two?
Microsoft?
Sony?
Zenimax? (Bethesda)
Out of those I would suspect Microsoft, or Zenimax as the top two choices for dirty double dealing on the side. Microsoft would kill to have the top 4 shooter franchises exclusive on their console, they make a hell of a lot of money from Live subscriptions. Also Zenimax seems to be very much down their alley as far as development freedom and other perks which they may want.
EA?
Take Two?
Microsoft?
Sony?
Zenimax? (Bethesda)
Out of those I would suspect Microsoft, or Zenimax as the top two choices for dirty double dealing on the side. Microsoft would kill to have the top 4 shooter franchises exclusive on their console, they make a hell of a lot of money from Live subscriptions. Also Zenimax seems to be very much down their alley as far as development freedom and other perks which they may want.
I don't know. MW2 was certainly a solid game, but it doesn't seem to me like there's any technical marvel there that that would have publishers leaping to scoop up West and Zampella other than whatever cachet there is behind being able to claim that 'the guys behind MW2' are making your game.
I mean, the value's in the IP itself. Are West and Zampella more likely to produce the next MW2 than any of the other also talented teams trying to produce the next MW2?
I mean, the value's in the IP itself. Are West and Zampella more likely to produce the next MW2 than any of the other also talented teams trying to produce the next MW2?
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Aren't the guys that made Battle field a big deal and then ran off and made Call of duty ?
If so MS or another company may hope they can strike gold a third time.
Personaly I think MS would have a good thing if they got these guys and had them fix the Perfect Dark franchise or start a new ip. Ms is big enough that they can let them do what they want.
Sony also would be a good fit. As I said before sony is trying to get a great fps out there. Resitance , Killzone and Mag are all good trys but none of them really took off. The guys behind battlefield and call of duty over seeing those three franchies could really help Sony out alot.
Ea can grab them and have them g back to battle field and the other fps games that EA has
IW was formed by the people who worked on Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault.
Please no. Let Resistance and KZ2 be the way they are. I don't want them to turn into a sub-HD rendered quake-styled shooter.
They ran away from EA, why would they want to go back?
Lifestyle! Most people aren't in the business for the money, they want more than that. They want to live a good lifestyle, enjoy their work, have freedom of expression and stability. An extra 40% revenue when you're already talking about several hundreds of millions without that 40% isn't a huge loss if other factors make up for it.
As an issue of creative control (people saying IW is only in it for the money don't realize how creative people want creative control and influence on the future of their babies) this could very well be as simple as above: Activision sees that MW is too valuable to lapse 2-3 years. With a lawsuit they can rush out some titles (we are talking hundreds of millions in profits), even their MMO (think $60 + $10-$15/mo), and drag the issue out in court. I am sure their lawyers have all sorts of worst case scenarios. The cost of settling/losing may be less the the benefits of milking the brand. Essentially they could be cutting the cord, knowing it will cost them, but this allows them in on control of the IP.
Overall it sounds very dirty for Activision (surprise surprise). I find it funny in industries that thrive on creativity and controlling contracts that when they don't benefit them (oh my, our creative people can just up and leave??!) they do crazy stuff. Obviously Activision gave up a lot to keep IW together and to get them to make MW2. It seems that they loved those conditions--as long as they got the golden egg. Now the next golden egg doesn't play well with those concession, in which case, these creative people can go jump in a lake.
I wonder how much the Bungie/MS deal is in he back of Activisions mind as well. I am sure there was similar posturing behind the scenes, it would be interesting to see how the situations compare. MS obviously thought the creative people, and not the Bungie name, was most valuable. Keeping Bungie on their side, even for a short period of time, and a solution that keeps the creative people connected (but not controlled) was their goal.
As a publisher and non-platform owner Activision seems to have fewer equitable options.
I don't have your optimistic view about how well their lawyers can assess risk. I wouldn't be surprised if the way the risk is being judged is that the lawyer who tells Kotic what he wants to hear most is determined to have the most accurate worst case scenario ...
In the end a lawsuit can be delayed, but no way in hell do I see them making a profit in the end from this mess if the MOU says what West/Zampella says it does. In that case they can get get one more decent fiscal year out of this mess, after which it's going to absolutely slaughter their bottom line.
In the end a lawsuit can be delayed, but no way in hell do I see them making a profit in the end from this mess if the MOU says what West/Zampella says it does. In that case they can get get one more decent fiscal year out of this mess, after which it's going to absolutely slaughter their bottom line.
I think it's kind of funny how you hear from one side, Epic, Id, etc, that the independent studio is dying or at least endangered. That it takes so much money to compete today, there's too much risk in big budget projects, publishers favor their owned IP's, and that sort of thing.
Then on the other side you have studios like IW and Bungie apparently chomping at the bit to be independent. Which is it?
Then on the other side you have studios like IW and Bungie apparently chomping at the bit to be independent. Which is it?
Really? Is that why each iteration seems to set the new record for best selling game ever?
To date, there's no proof of Acti milking the COD franchise. There is only evidence of the reverse in fact. All this milk talk seems to be entirely you guys speculating.
Anyways, the law today seems as much about public opinion as anything (this is why Apple can walk in and trademark the iPhone name, after another not as popular company had trademarked it first) so West/Zampella arent likely to lose.
Also. I think I remember a Neogaf rumor about IW's new IP. It was said to be something like a cross between The Sims and COD MMO. A The Sims like portion of character management/nurturing, and a online COD-like FPS portion.
Sounded kinda goofy, anyway. Maybe that's why Acti wasn't keen on it.
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Maybe it has something to do with those two studios selling 10M copies of their best selling games?
It could also be that Bungie/IW started on the low end whereas the success at companies like iD started earlier and they are on reverse courses so to speak. e.g. I bet iD had a lot more leverage with contracts 5 years ago than IW did.
It could also be that Bungie/IW started on the low end whereas the success at companies like iD started earlier and they are on reverse courses so to speak. e.g. I bet iD had a lot more leverage with contracts 5 years ago than IW did.
So you think no one will ever get tired of CoD? Genre fatigue happens naturally but it can't be helped by putting out lower and lower quality entries (TH) or simply flooding the market with title after title (GH).
There's a lot of speculation, but dobwal mentioned either 3 or 4 CoD titles coming up. This is way past annualization.
We will get at least 1 COD a year. My friends are already talking about skipping out next years verison like they did for the 2008 release. But after this news many are just going to jump off the franchise. I know its a small sampling of people who actually know whats going on , but many people coming into retail are tired of MW 2 already and are wondering where additonal content is.
At some point many people will wonder like with madden why there isn't new content every few months and why they have to go out and buy another $60 game for more multiplayer content. Because quite frankly the single player really sucks
At some point many people will wonder like with madden why there isn't new content every few months and why they have to go out and buy another $60 game for more multiplayer content. Because quite frankly the single player really sucks
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