"On top of a mountain high,
there was a man named Kotick who was clever and sly.
"I will keep their money!" he said with a hunched- back.
Even though it was clearly a breach of contract.
He had no excuse, he couldn't implore!
what would cause the firing of infinity ward.
"I've got an idea! a marvelous sensation!, i will charge those fools with insubordination!"
He thought he had won, he was having much fun,
Till he found he was sued by 37 plus 1.
"We had enough!" IW said in their plea. "You can't force us here for MW3!"
So Kotick is in trouble, he might have to pay,
the members of IW who signed with EA.
So the story continues, will IW get the boot?
Or will kotick's pocket get destroyed like a tactical nuke?"
From Masters G4 link.. right from the horses mouth "Activision retains the discretion to determine the amount and the schedule of bonus payments for MW2 and has acted consistent with its right"
Well as you can see fuse. It wasn't royalties, it was in fact bonuses. So indeed, that Ca law does seem to apply.
God speed them to win and to lead us all to fairer contracts. Or at least helping us workers recognize we aren't little peons that are at the mercy of contractual forces beyond our ability to question/fight.
7 Studios
Beenox
Bizarre Creations
Budcat Creations
DemonWare
FreeStyleGames
High Moon Studios
Neversoft
Radical Entertainment
Raven Software
Sledgehammer Games
Toys For Bob
Treyarch
Vicarious Visions
That doesn't seem like such a smart thing to do. if there's anything Joe Gamer knows about MW2, it's that it's made by Infinity Ward. Stripping that name from MW3 will almost certainly mean it'll have less success.
One thing keeps playing in my head with this whole ordeal; I feel an urge to apply at Respawn, to be part of the development of something that will undoubtedly very awesome. Maybe in a year...
Hmm. Doesn't this increase the likelihood that companies will start to outsource work to places like India and China?
You know, those workers that get shit for pay and never complain.
Only if they can make one the best selling American games. MW2 worked in part because it was a core development team that knew what it wanted. It wasn't focused outside with outsourced work for most of it.
High Moon Studios is about to release that awesome new Transformer's game, War for Cybertron. It's gonna sell millions and I doubt the studio will close... it better not! San Diego needs all the game studios we got.
That doesn't seem like such a smart thing to do. if there's anything Joe Gamer knows about MW2, it's that it's made by Infinity Ward. Stripping that name from MW3 will almost certainly mean it'll have less success.
You give the general public too much credit. The Call of Duty games developed by Treyarch have sales that are on par with the Infinity Ward releases, even with the (argueably) lower quality of the Treyarch developed games.
haha yea, most people have no idea what studios make what. As far as they're concerned EA and ubisoft are both studios and they make about 75% of the games out there.
haha yea, most people have no idea what studios make what. As far as they're concerned EA and ubisoft are both studios and they make about 75% of the games out there.
true story:
"OH snap, you worked for EA!? Did you work on Madden!?"
You give the general public too much credit. The Call of Duty games developed by Treyarch have sales that are on par with the Infinity Ward releases, even with the (argueably) lower quality of the Treyarch developed games.
I dunno....the MW games trounce the other CoD games significantly, in terms of sales. Check vgchartz on them. I don't think Cod5 did poorly or anything, but MW2's already got it beat, and currently holds the record as the most financially successful entertainment product launch, across all media, of all time: http://www.el33tonline.com/past/2010/4/22/modern_warfare_2_awarded_guinness/
I agree with you on the general public thing though, but I think there are a few keystone studios that gamers DO associate the product with. .IW might have been on the road to being one of those.
I think glib might have a good idea about what's going on at Radical...WINK WINK.
Hopefully everyone all lands on their feet, patches things up and we can all look back on this and laugh. Throwing money into the air as we ride into the sunset on our unicorns made of honey.
"On top of a mountain high,
there was a man named Kotick who was clever and sly.
"I will keep their money!" he said with a hunched- back.
Even though it was clearly a breach of contract.
He had no excuse, he couldn't implore!
what would cause the firing of infinity ward.
"I've got an idea! a marvelous sensation!, i will charge those fools with insubordination!"
He thought he had won, he was having much fun,
Till he found he was sued by 37 plus 1.
"We had enough!" IW said in their plea. "You can't force us here for MW3!"
So Kotick is in trouble, he might have to pay,
the members of IW who signed with EA.
So the story continues, will IW get the boot?
Or will kotick's pocket get destroyed like a tactical nuke?"
^Love!
I really just want to see the devs win a nice settlement so that they can make a game self funded that's published by EA. Not a game funded all the way by EA. The more they self fund the better the contract can be for what the studio gets back from the sales.
That doesn't seem like such a smart thing to do. if there's anything Joe Gamer knows about MW2, it's that it's made by Infinity Ward. Stripping that name from MW3 will almost certainly mean it'll have less success.
Don't know about that really, following CoD4 was World at war which achieved around the same amount of sales (as Cod4 not mw2) if not a touch more once the whole zombies thing took off.
You can only rest on your laurels for so long though...They can surf along on the wave of success that IW built for them, but if they export crap games riddled with Modern Warfare logos the unwashed masses will turn to the next shiny object to spend their pennies on.
And can you imagine being a Dev on that next game. Jesus, no pressure boys
Publishing deal, not acquisition. Honestly, the Microsoft purchase of Bungie was more insane... in one fell swoop a PC & Mac game became an Xbox exclusive.
The more i think about it the more it feels like they were going to try and pull a bungie and buy themselves back out from under Activision. With all the money from the royalties, they may have had enough to do it. It would explain why they were talking to EA, that way EA could publish the next game while they kept the IP rights. It would also explain why Activision was saying they were trying to steal the money from the other workers. Just an idea.
Since this is a court-case at this point, any 'interviews' from either side is just a PR war. I'm not that worried about West and Zampella, as I'm sure they're very wealthy as is, with a shiny new corporate backer that will do anything to protect a new potential cash-cow.
All of this just ends up hurting all the people in the background of these studios.
That is just... really badly written. It's like the journalist didn't even bother to sum things up clearly and polish his sentences... It's pretty embarassing at certain points
Replies
there was a man named Kotick who was clever and sly.
"I will keep their money!" he said with a hunched- back.
Even though it was clearly a breach of contract.
He had no excuse, he couldn't implore!
what would cause the firing of infinity ward.
"I've got an idea! a marvelous sensation!, i will charge those fools with insubordination!"
He thought he had won, he was having much fun,
Till he found he was sued by 37 plus 1.
"We had enough!" IW said in their plea. "You can't force us here for MW3!"
So Kotick is in trouble, he might have to pay,
the members of IW who signed with EA.
So the story continues, will IW get the boot?
Or will kotick's pocket get destroyed like a tactical nuke?"
http://www.edge-online.com/news/activision-to-close-infinity-ward-%E2%80%93-analyst
With CEO Mike Griffith resigning from Activision, subsequently.
http://kotaku.com/5526164/activision-ceo-griffith-resigns-from-post
Isn't that exactly what I said ?
From what I hear through the grapevine is Activision has already started to refill IW with staff from other studios.
7 Studios
Beenox
Bizarre Creations
Budcat Creations
DemonWare
FreeStyleGames
High Moon Studios
Neversoft
Radical Entertainment
Raven Software
Sledgehammer Games
Toys For Bob
Treyarch
Vicarious Visions
http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AATVI
:poly118:
OUCH... Damn man. Take it easy. We got lots of people on these boards that work at both these places.
Every stock is going down as far as I know, worries about shit in the EU with Greece and stuff...
That doesn't seem like such a smart thing to do. if there's anything Joe Gamer knows about MW2, it's that it's made by Infinity Ward. Stripping that name from MW3 will almost certainly mean it'll have less success.
One thing keeps playing in my head with this whole ordeal; I feel an urge to apply at Respawn, to be part of the development of something that will undoubtedly very awesome. Maybe in a year...
Only if they can make one the best selling American games. MW2 worked in part because it was a core development team that knew what it wanted. It wasn't focused outside with outsourced work for most of it.
You give the general public too much credit. The Call of Duty games developed by Treyarch have sales that are on par with the Infinity Ward releases, even with the (argueably) lower quality of the Treyarch developed games.
true story:
"OH snap, you worked for EA!? Did you work on Madden!?"
I dunno....the MW games trounce the other CoD games significantly, in terms of sales. Check vgchartz on them. I don't think Cod5 did poorly or anything, but MW2's already got it beat, and currently holds the record as the most financially successful entertainment product launch, across all media, of all time: http://www.el33tonline.com/past/2010/4/22/modern_warfare_2_awarded_guinness/
I agree with you on the general public thing though, but I think there are a few keystone studios that gamers DO associate the product with. .IW might have been on the road to being one of those.
uhh what?
oh, I get it. you're pretending to be an analyst! nice one broseph!
I don't know what radical is doing since Prototype but I know High Moon is doing the new transformers and it looks awesome.
Hopefully everyone all lands on their feet, patches things up and we can all look back on this and laugh. Throwing money into the air as we ride into the sunset on our unicorns made of honey.
^Love!
I really just want to see the devs win a nice settlement so that they can make a game self funded that's published by EA. Not a game funded all the way by EA. The more they self fund the better the contract can be for what the studio gets back from the sales.
Don't know about that really, following CoD4 was World at war which achieved around the same amount of sales (as Cod4 not mw2) if not a touch more once the whole zombies thing took off.
http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/704329/Bungle-Releases-Brief-Statement-On-10-Year-Partnership-With-Activision.html
And can you imagine being a Dev on that next game. Jesus, no pressure boys
Yup
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/29/bungie-enters-10-year-partnership-with-activision/
http://www.epiconeliner.com/
I thought IW had the rights to all "post Vietnam" COD games?
yeah they were supposed to. Maybe the black ops game takes place in the vietnam era?
I wondered because in the article then mention a rumour of the cold war.
I guess we will see
http://kotaku.com/5532994/activision-boss-explains-firing-of-modern-warfare-creators-whats-next-for-infinity-ward
kotick speaks on the issue- whole lotta words,-- not a lotta content in the statement though.
did the speculations ever turn into facts based as to why the studio heads were given the boot?
Last time i checked the only thing they had on the page was an email address for job applications.
edit:
btw, how was respawn.com not a taken domain?
Someone made some ridiculous bank off of that address...
http://kotaku.com/5715854/call-of-duty-giant-suing-rival-over-modern-warfare-meltdown-paints-uglier-picture
http://kotaku.com/5513694/the-modern-warfare-fight-your-guide-to-activision-vs-infinity-ward
http://kotaku.com/5716021/call-of-duty-publishers-accusations-are-deliberate-misdirection-rival-says
But think of all the popcorn that will go uneaten if there was no drama. Think of the popcorn man!
/popcorn
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2012/05/24/respawn-39-s-west-and-zampella-sound-off-on-upcoming-activision-lawsuit.aspx
All of this just ends up hurting all the people in the background of these studios.