"breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward ... The matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation,"

Fix up their fuckups...

With news that two of Infinity Ward’s chiefs have been ousted by Activision, we’ve stumbled upon a story in Business Week that may provide clues about who’ll be leading the troops into battle on future Call of Duty products. Philip Earl, currently the senior VP of Activision Asia, located in Sydney, Australia, will be leading a new Call of Duty unit, with plans to “expand the game franchise in new directions, including new geographic markets”, according to Business Week.

With confirmation that studio heads Vince Zampella and Jason West had been dismissed from Activision Blizzard’s Infinity Ward studio on the same day that the announcement of Philip Earl’s new role was made, it’s not clear what bearing the new Call of Duty unit announcement had on the sackings.

However, it should be noted that both Vince Zampella and Jason West have long histories in game development, with over a decade each specialising in first person shooter development. In stark contrast, Philip Earl comes from a Fast Moving Consumer Goods background, being employed as the General Manager of the Snacks and Confectionary division at Nestle before moving to Activision Blizzard. Could this massive difference in business experience have been a contributing factor to the disagreements between Vince, Jason and Activision Blizzard? We’ve asked for an interview with Philip to discuss his move to the new unit, and what this means for the franchise, but unfortunately Activision Blizzard Australia has let us know that an interview isn’t available “at this stage”.

Activision Blizzard also released a Press Release overnight, outlining its plans for the license to print money that is Call of Duty. It’s no surprise that the company has been eyeing MMO plans for the franchise, but the release made this point crystal clear:



The same release also announced the development of a Call of Duty title by Sledgehammer Games, but with a focus on branching the franchise out “into the action-adventure genre.” Sledgehammer is headed up by two of the main men behind Dead Space, Glen A. Schofield and Michael Condrey, who were head-hunted from EA in 2009. The same release also confirmed that the next Call of Duty title is being worked on by Treyarch for release in 2010, with two Modern Warfare 2 DLC packs on the way in the same year. No surprises there at least.

It’s very interesting times ahead for the Call of Duty franchise, not to mention the future of Infinity Ward, with no mention of the studio in the press release. Considering Activision Blizzard’s heavy reliance upon the franchise in an otherwise threadbare year, making such drastic changes could not have been an easy decision. Only time will tell whether it has paid off.

Following the report on Wednesday that Jason West and Vince Zampelia, the now former studio heads at Infinity Ward, were forcibly and unexpectedly marched out of their offices by security and consequently fired, news has emerged that both men are set to sue Activision for wrongful dismissal, unpaid royalties and maintain the contractual right given to them to control "Modern warfare-branded games".

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has so far generated over USD$3,000,000,000 in sales and is undoubtedly one of the most successful games of the past decade. For such huge success you would think that the president/game director and CEO responsible would receive nothing but praise. Instead the gentlemen were dismissed on grounds of "insubordination" and "Activision terminated their employment weeks before they were to be paid substantial royalty payments as part of their existing contracts for Modern Warfare 2."

Speaking on behalf of his clients, attorney Robert Schwartz, voiced the underlyingsense of injustice stating that "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."

Apparently we weren't the only ones kept surprised by the news, with both men "shocked" at the decision. "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" said West in disbelief. Equally angered and confused, Zampella stated "After all we have given to Activision, we shouldn't have to sue to get paid".

The suit filed by West and Zampella claims for "breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, wrong termination in violation of public policy, and declaratory relief".