Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It currently serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016.^[4]

The company was founded as Activision, Inc. in October 1979 in Sunnyvale, California, by former Atari game developers, upset at how they were treated at Atari, to develop their own games for the popular Atari 2600 home video game console. Activision was the first independent, third-party, console video game developer. The 1983 video game crash, in part created by too many new companies trying to follow in Activision's footsteps without the expertise of Activision's founders, hurt Activision's position in console games, forcing them to diversify into games for home computers, including the acquisition of Infocom. After a management shift, with CEO Jim Levy replaced by Bruce Davis, the company renamed itself as Mediagenic and branched out into business software applications. Mediagenic quickly fell into debt, and the company was bought for around US$500,000 by Bobby Kotick and a small group of investors around 1991.

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Kotick instituted a full rework of the company to cover its debts: dismissing most of its staff, moving the company to Los Angeles, and reincorporating under the Activision name. Building on existing assets, the Kotick-led Activision pursued more publishing opportunities and, after recovering from the former debt, started acquiring numerous studios and intellectual properties over the 1990s and 2000s, among these being the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero series. Activision Holdings was formed to manage the internal and acquired studios. In 2008, Activision's parent merged with Vivendi Games, the parent company of Blizzard Entertainment, and formed Activision Blizzard, with Kotick as its CEO. Within this structure, Activision serves to manage numerous third-party studios and publish all of the parent company's games outside of those created by Blizzard.

• 1History
• 2Studios
• 3Notable games published

History[edit]

Founding (1979)[edit]

By 1979, Nolan Bushnell had sold Atari, Inc. to Warner Communications and left the company over several disagreements with the direction Warner wanted to take the company—particularly with the popular Atari 2600 game console (then known as the Atari Video Game Console or VCS).^[5] Bushnell's replacement as CEO, Ray Kassar, showed little respect to developers, giving them no financial compensation for profitable games^[6] and refusing them public credit for fear they would be recruited by other game companies.^[7]David Crane, one of Atari's programmers, recalled a memo sent by Kassar that listed the best-selling cartridges from the previous year to help guide game ideas; Crane noted that the games he was fully responsible for had brought in over US$20 million for the company but he was still only receiving a US$20,000 salary.^[8] Crane, along with Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller and Bob Whitehead, became vocal about the lack of recognition within the company and became known as the 'Gang of Four'.^[8] The group met with Kassar in May 1979 to demand that the company treat developers as record labels treated musicians, with royalties and their names on game boxes. Kaplan, who called the others 'the best designers for the [2600] in the world', recalled that Kassar called the four men 'towel designers' and claimed that 'anybody can do a cartridge'.^[9]

The four made the decision to soon leave Atari and start their own business, but were not sure how to go about it. Some developers had already left Atari, only to be hired back as contractors, effectively doubling their pay rate, but the four wanted something more ambitious.^[8] In 1979, the concept of third-party developers did not exist,^[10] as software for video game consoles were published exclusively by makers of the systems for which the games were designed.^[11] The four decided to create their own independent game development company. They were directed by their attorney to Jim Levy, who was at the time raising venture capital to manufacture of cassette tape drives for early home computers. Levy listened to their plans, agreed with its direction, and helped the four to secure about US$1 million in capital from Sutter Hill Ventures.^[8] By August, Crane and Miller had left Atari, with Whitehead and Kaplan joining them shortly after.^[9] Activision was formally founded on October 1, 1979, with Levy serving as CEO. The company was initially named 'Computer Arts, Inc.' while they considered a better title. The four founded had thought of the name VSync, Inc., but feared that the public would not understand or known how to say it. Levy suggested combining 'active' and 'television' to come up with Activision.^[12][13] The four's departure from Atari created a major dent in Atari's developer staff, and Atari pursued legal action from 1980 to 1982 to try to shut Activision down, claiming the four had stolen trade secrets. The lawsuit was settled by 1982, with Activision agreeing to pay royalties to Atari but otherwise legitimizing the third-party development model.^[8][14]

Early years (1980–1982)[edit]

The four's knowledge of the Atari 2600, as well as software tricks for the system, helped them make their own games visually distinct from Atari-produced games.^[8] Each of the founders developed their own titles, about one a year, over the first few years of the company. To further distinguish themselves, Activision's boxes were brightly colored and featured an in-game screenshot on the back cover.^[8] Instruction manuals for games devoted a least one page to credit the developer. Additionally, for nearly all of Activision's games through 1983, the instruction manuals included instructions for sending the company a photograph of a player's high scores to receive an embroidered patch in return.^[15]

Activision's breakout title was 1982's Pitfall!, created by Crane. More than 4 million copies of the game were sold.^[16] Total revenues around 1983 were estimated to be about US$60 million, at which point they had around 60 employees.^[8]Danny Goodman stated in Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games in 1983, 'I doubt that there is an active [Atari 2600] owner who doesn't have at least one Activision cartridge in his library'.^[17] The company launched a success initial public offering in 1983 on NASDAQ under the stock ticker AVSN.^[8][18] The founders were given the Game Developers Choice 'First Penguin' award in 2003, reflecting on being the first successful third-party developer.^[19]

The video game market crash (1983–1988)[edit]

The success of Activision, alongside the popularity of the Atari 2600, led to many more home consoles third-party developers as well as other home consoles. Activision produced some of its Atari games for the Intellivision and Colecovision consoles, among other platforms.^[20] However, several new third-party developers also arose, attempting to follow the approach Activision had used but without the experience they had; according to Crane, several of these companies were founded with venture capital and hired programmers with little game design experience off the street, mass-publishing whatever product the developers had made. This was a contributing factor to the video game crash of 1983, among other factors.^[8] For Activision, while they survived the crash, they felt its effects in the following years. These third-party developers folded, leaving warehouses full of unsold games, which savvy retailers purchased and sold at a mass discount (US$5 compared to Activision's US$40manufacturer's suggested retail price). While there was still a demand for Activision games, uneducated consumers were more drawn to the heavily-discounted titles instead, reducing their income. Because of this, Activision decided that they needed to diversity their games onto home computers such as the Commodore 64, Apple, and Atari 8-bit family to avoid a similar event.^[8] There still was a drain of talent through 1985 from the crash. Kaplan left Activision in 1983 to return to Atari as he wanted to be more involved in hardware development.^[21] Miller and Whitehead left in 1984 due to the large devaluation of their stock, and went to form Accolade.^[8][21]

With the video game crash making console game development a risky proposition, the company focused on developing for home computers with games like Little Computer People and Hacker, while Levy tried to keep expenditures in check as they recovered.^[8] Looking to expand further, Activision acquired, through a corporate merger, the struggling text adventure pioneer Infocom in June 1986. This acquisition was spearheaded by Levy, who was a big fan of Infocom's titles and felt the company was in a similar position as Activision.^[21] About six months after the 'Infocom Wedding', Activision's board decided to replace Levy with Bruce Davis. Davis was against the purchase of Infocom from the start and was heavy-handed in its management,^[22] and even attempted to seek a lawsuit to recover their purchase from Infocom's shareholders.^[8] Crane also found Davis difficult to work with, and was concerned with how Davis managed the closure of Imagic, one of the third-party development studios formed in Activision's success in 1981.^[8] Crane left Activision in 1988 and helped Gary Kitchen found Absolute Entertainment in 1988.^[8]

Mediagenic (1988–1992)[edit]

In 1988, Activision began involvement in software besides video games, such as business applications. As a result, Activision changed its corporate name to Mediagenic to better represent all of its activities.^[23][8]

Mediagenic consisted of four groups:

• Activision: video game publisher for various platforms, notably the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Sega Master System, the Atari 7800, Atari ST, Commodore 64 and Amiga
• Infocom: developer of interactive fiction games
• Gamestar: initially an independent company but purchased by Activision in 1986. Specialized in sports video games
• Ten Point O: business application software

In 1989, after several years of losses, Activision closed down the Infocom studios, extending to only 11 of the 26 employees an offer to relocate to Activision's Silicon Valley headquarters. Five of them accepted this offer.^[22]

Notably during this period, Mediagenic, via Activision, secured the rights to distribute games from Cyan Worlds. The first game published by Activision from Cyan was The Manhole, on CD-ROM for personal computers, the first major game distributed in this format.^[24][25]

Purchase by Bobby Kotick (1990–1997)[edit]

Davis' management of Mediagenic failed to produce a profitable company; in 1991, Mediagenic reported a loss of US$26.8 million on only US$28.8 million profit and had over US$60 million in debt.^[8][26] Cyan severed their contract with Activision, and instead turned to Broderbund for publishing, including what would become one of the most significant computer games of the 1990s, Myst.^[26]

Bobby Kotick had become interested in the value of the video game industry following the crash, and he and three investors tried to buy Commodore International as to be able to gain access to the Commodore Amiga line of personal computers. Failing to complete this, the group bought a company that licensed Nintendo characters, and through Nintendo was directed to the failing Mediagenic.^[27] Kotick was drawn to buy out Mediagenic not for its current offerings but for the Activision name, given its past successes with Pitfall! with hopes to restore Activision to its former glory.^[28] Kotick and additional investors bought Mediagenic for approximately US$500,000 in 1991; among these investors included real estate businessman Steve Wynn and Philips Electronics.^[29][27] Kotick became CEO and made several immediate changes: He let go of all but 8 of the companies' 150 employees, performed a full restructuring of the company, developed a bankruptcy restructuring plan, and reincorporated the company in Los Angeles, California.^[14] In the bankruptcy plan, Kotick recognized that Mediagenic still had valuable assets, which included the Infocom library as well as its authoring tools to make games, Activision's distribution network, and licenses to develop on Nintendo and Sega home consoles.^[26] Kotick offset some debt by giving stock in the company to its distributors as to keep them vested in the company's success.^[26] Kotick also had the company reissue several of its past console and Infocom titles as compilations for personal computers. Kotick had also recognized the value of the Zork property from Infocom, and had the company develop a sequel, Return to Zork. Combined, these steps allowed Mediagenic to fulfill on the bankruptcy plan, and by the end of 1992, Kotick renamed Mediagenic to the original Activision name.^[26] The new Activision went public in October 1993, raising about US$40 million,^[14] and was listed on NASDAQ under its new ticker symbol ATVI.^[29]

By 1995, Kotick's approach had met one promise he made to investors: that he would give them four years of 50% growth in revenues while remaining break-even. Reaching this goal, Kotick then set Activision on his second promise to investors, as to develop high-demand games as to make the company profitable by 1997.^[26]

Activision published the first-person perspective MechWarrior in 1989, based on FASA's pen-and-pencil game BattleTech. A sequel, MechWarrior 2, was released in 1995 after two years of delays and internal struggles, prompting FASA not to renew their licensing deal with Activision. To counter, Activision released several more games bearing the MechWarrior 2 name, which did not violate their licensing agreement. These included NetMech, MechWarrior 2: Ghost Bears Legacy, and MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries. The entire MechWarrior 2 game series accounted for more than US$70 million in sales.

Activision procured the license to another pen-and-paper-based war game, Heavy Gear, in 1997. The video game version was well received by critics, with an 81.46% average rating on GameRankings and being considered the best game of the genre at the time by GameSpot. The Mechwarrior 2 engine was also used in other Activision games, including 1997's Interstate '76 and finally 1998's Battlezone.

Growth and acquisitions (1997–2008)[edit]

With several of its own successfully-developed games helping to turn a profit, Kotick led Activision to start seeking acquisitions of video game development studios, guided by market surveys to determine what areas of content to focus on.^[27] It is estimated that between 1997 and 2008, Activision made 25 acquisitions, several for undisclosed amounts. Several of these came prior to 2001, in the midst of the Dot-com bubble, enabling the company to acquire studios at a lower valuation.^[27] By June 2000, Activision Holdings was created as a holding company within Activision to manage more effectively Activision and its subsidiaries.^[30] Immediately after, Activision changed its corporation name from 'Activision, Inc.' to 'Activision Publishing, Inc.', while Activision Holdings took Activision's former 'Activision, Inc.' name.^[30] Activision Publishing became a subsidiary of Activision in this transition.^[31]

Some of the key acquisitions and investments made by Activision in this period include:

• Raven Software: Raven was founded in 1990; because of their close proximity, Raven frequently collaborated with id Software, and some of the studio's early successes was the Heretic series using id's Doom engine. Around 1997, Raven's founders Brian and Steve Raffel felt the need to seek a parent company. They arranged a publishing deal with Activision in 1997, which not only served to provide Raven addition financial support, but also gave Activision the opportunity to work closely with id Software and gain business relationships with them.^[32] By the end of 1997, Activision acquired Raven as one of its first subsidiaries under Kotick.^[33]
• Neversoft: Prior to its acquisition in 2000, Activision had arranged a development deal with Neversoft to re-develop Apocalypse, a title that failed to be completed within Activision. Subsequently, Activision had Neversoft work on a prototype for a skateboarding game, which would end up becoming the first in the Tony Hawk's series of skateboarding video games. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was a critical success, leading Activision to acquire Neversoft in April 2000.^[34] After eight games, the series has brought in US$1.6 billion.^[14]
• Infinity Ward: After Electronic Arts released Medal of Honor: Allied Assault in 2002, several of the developers from 2015, Inc., disenchanted with their current contracts, left to form a new studio, Infinity Ward. Kotick himself provided the group with startup funding, as they were seeking to develop a similar title to Medal of Honor. Activision acquired the studio for US$5 million in January 2003, and later publish their first title, Call of Duty, directly competing with Electronic Arts.^[14] The Call of Duty series has since seen nearly yearly releases and as of 2016 had sold more than 250 million units and brought in more than US$12 billion in revenue.^[35]
• Treyarch: The Santa Monica, California studio was founded in 1996. With the success of the first Tony Hawk game from Neversoft, Activision used Treyarch to assist in further Tony Hawk games as well as to develop titles using Activision's license of Marvel's Spider-Man. Activision acquired the studio in 2001 for about US$20 million.^[36] Following the success of Call of Duty from Infinity Ward, Activision moved Treyarch to assist in the series' development, trading off each year' major release between the two studios.
• Gray Matter Interactive: While Gray Matter was originally founded in 1993 as Xatrix Entertainment, it was rebranded to Gray Matter in 1999 as they began work on Return to Castle Wolfenstein, in conjunction with Nerve Software and oversight by id Software who owned the Castle Wolfenstein IP. Activision, the game's publisher, acquired a portion of Gray Matter's stock during this time. Return to Castle Wolfenstein was a critical and financial success, and led Activision to acquire the remain shares of Gray Matter in 2002 for about US$3.2 million,^[37] with the intent to help Infinity Ward expand out the Call of Duty franchise. In 2005, Activision made the decision to merge the smaller Gray Matter into the larger Treyarch to put their combined talents towards Call of Duty 3.^[38]
• Red Octane: Around 2005, Red Octane was co-developing Guitar Hero, a console game based on the arcade game GuitarFreaks, with Harmonix; Harmonix was developing the software while Red Octane developed the instrument controllers. Guitar Hero was a major success. Activision purchased Red Octant for nearly US$100 million in June 2006. The series has since earned more than US$2 billion in revenues.^[14]
• Toys for Bob: Toys for Bob was founded by Paul Reiche III, Fred Ford, and Terry Falls in 1989 and gained success in developing the first two Star Control games, and later made film-to-video game adaptions. Activision purchased the studio in 2005, and had given them work on some of the Tony Hawk's games as well as other licensed properties.^[39] Following Activision's merger with Vivendi, Activision gained the intellectual property of Spyro, and Activision gave Toys for Bob to develop the series in a new direction, leading to the toys-to-lifeSkylanders series.^[40]

Merger with Vivendi Games (2008)[edit]

While Activision was highly successful with its range of developers and successful series, Kotick was concerned that they did not have a title for the growing massively multiplayer online market, which presented the opportunity for continued revenues from subscription models and microtransactions instead of the revenue from a single sale. Around 2006, Kotick contacted Jean-Bernard Lévy, the new CEO of Vivendi, a French media conglomerate. Vivendi had a games division, Vivendi Games, that was struggling to be viable at the time, but its principle feature was that it owned Blizzard Entertainment and its highly-successful World of Warcraft game, which was drawing in US$1.1 billion a year in subscription fees. Vivendi Games also owned Sierra Entertainment.^[14]

Lévy recognized Kotick wanted control of World of Warcraft, and offered to allow the companies to merge, but only if Lévy held the majority shares in the merged group, forcing Kotick to cede control. Kotick fretted about this decision for a while, according to friends and investors. During this time in 2006–2007, some of Activision's former successful properties began to wane, such as Tony Hawk's, and Activision faced harsher competition from Electronic Arts, who had purchased Harmonix after Activision bought Red Octane as to develop Rock Band, a competing title to Guitar Hero.^[14] Kotick met with Blizzard's president Mike Morhaime, and learned that Blizzard had also had successful inroad into getting their games into China, a potentially lucrative market. Given this potential opportunity, Kotick agreed to the merger.^[14]

Activision's board signed onto the merger by December 2007.^[41] The merger was completed in July 2008. The new company was called Activision Blizzard and was headed by Kotick, while Vivendi maintained a 52% share in the company.^[14][42] The new company was estimated to be worth US$18.9 billion, ahead of Electronic Arts, which was valued at US$14.1 billion.^[43]

Post-merger developments (2009–present)[edit]

Activision Publishing remains a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard following the merger, and is responsible for developing, producing, and distributing games from its internal and subsidiary studios. Eric Hershberg was announced as Activision Publishing's CEO in 2010.^[31]

Activision Publishing established Sledgehammer Games in November 2009. Formed earlier in 2009 by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, former Visceral Games leads that had worked on Dead Space, Sledgehammer intended to develop a Call of Duty spin-off title fashioned after the gameplay in Dead Space. However, in early 2010, legal issues between Infinity Ward and Activision Blizzard led to several members of Infinity Ward leaving, and Activision assigned Sledgehammer to assist Infinity Ward in the next major Call of Duty title, Modern Warfare 3.^[44] Since then, Sledgehammer, Infinity Ward, and Treyarch share development duties for the flagship series, with support from Raven and other studios as necessary.

In February 2010, Activision Blizzard reported significant losses in revenue stemming from a slow down in Guitar Hero sales and from its more casual games. Subsequently Activision Publishing shuttered Red Octane, Luxoflux and Underground Development as well as laid off about 25% of the staff at Neversoft.^[45][46] Within the same year, Activision shuttered Budcat Creations in November 2010, and Bizarre Creations in February 2011.^[47][48]

Hirshberg left the CEO position in March 2018, and the position remains open as of February 2019.^[49]

Studios[edit]

Active[edit]

• Beenox in Québec City, Québec, Canada, founded in May 2000, acquired on May 25, 2005.
• Demonware in both Dublin, Republic of Ireland and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, founded in 2003, acquired in May 2007.
• High Moon Studios in Carlsbad, California, founded as Sammy Corporation in April 2001, acquired by Vivendi Games in January 2006.
• Infinity Ward in Woodland Hills, California, founded in 2002, acquired in October 2003.
• Raven Software in Madison, Wisconsin, founded in 1990, acquired in 1997.
• Sledgehammer Games in Foster City, California, founded on July 21, 2009.
• Toys for Bob in Novato, California, founded in 1989, acquired on May 3, 2005.
• Treyarch in Santa Monica, California, founded in 1996, acquired in 2001.
• Vicarious Visions in Menands, New York, founded in 1990, acquired in January 2005.

Defunct[edit]

• The Blast Furnace in Leeds, United Kingdom, founded in November 2011 as Activision Leeds, changed rename in August 2012, closed in March 2014.
• Gray Matter Interactive in Los Angeles, California, founded in the 1990s as Xatrix Entertainment, acquired in January 2002, merged into Treyarch in 2005.
• Infocom in Cambridge, Massachusetts, founded on June 22, 1979, acquired in 1986, closed in 1989.
• Luxoflux in Santa Monica, California, founded in January 1997, acquired in October 2002, closed on February 11, 2010.^[50]
• Shaba Games in San Francisco, California, founded in September 1997, acquired in 2002, and closed on October 8, 2009.^[51][52]
• RedOctane in Mountain View, California, founded in November 2005, acquired in 2006, closed on February 11, 2010.^[46]
• Underground Development in Redwood Shores, California, founded as Z-Axis in 1994, acquired in May 2002, closed on February 11, 2010.^[46]
• Budcat Creations in Iowa City, Iowa, founded in September 2000, acquired on November 10, 2008, closed in November 2010.
• 7 Studios in Los Angeles, California, founded in 1999, acquired on April 6, 2009, closed in February 2011.
• Bizarre Creations in Liverpool, England, founded as Raising Hell Productions in 1987 and changed name in 1994, acquired on September 26, 2007,^[53] closed on February 18, 2011.^[48]
• Radical Entertainment in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, founded in 1991, acquired by Vivendi Games in 2005, laid off most staff in 2012. While studio name remains active within Activision, remaining staff support other projects and the studio does not have an ongoing development.^[54]
• Beachhead Studio in Santa Monica, California, founded in February 2011.
• Neversoft in Los Angeles, California, founded in July 1994, acquired in October 1999, merged into Infinity Ward on May 3, 2014^[55] and was officially made defunct on July 10, 2014.^[56]

Sold[edit]

• Wanako Games in Santiago, Chile, founded in 2005, acquired by Vivendi Games on February 20, 2007, sold to Artificial Mind and Movement on November 20, 2008.
• FreeStyleGames in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, United Kingdom, founded in 2002, acquired on September 12, 2008, sold to Ubisoft on January 18, 2017, subsequently renamed Ubisoft Leamington.
• Swordfish Studios in Birmingham, England, founded in September 2002, acquired by Vivendi Universal Games in June 2005, sold to Codemasters on November 14, 2008.
• Massive Entertainment in Malmö, Sweden, founded in 1997, acquired by Vivendi Universal Games in 2002, sold to Ubisoft on November 10, 2008.

Notable games published[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

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56. ^Phillips, Tom (July 10, 2014). 'Tony Hawk studio Neversoft bids farewell, burns eyeball effigy'. Eurogamer. Archived from the original on July 13, 2014. Retrieved July 11, 2014.

External links[edit]

Infinity Ward, Inc. is an American video game developer. They developed the video game Call of Duty, along with seven other installments in the Call of Duty series. Vince Zampella, Grant Collier, and Jason West established Infinity Ward in 2002 after working at 2015, Inc. previously.^[2][3] All of the 22 original team members of Infinity Ward came from the team that had worked on Medal of Honor: Allied Assault while at 2015, Inc. Activision helped fund Infinity Ward in its early days, buying up 30 percent of the company.^[4] The studio's first game, World War II shooter Call of Duty, was released on the PC in 2003. The day after the game was released, Activision bought the rest of Infinity Ward, signing employees to long term contracts. Infinity Ward went on to make Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and the upcoming Modern Warfare reboot.

Co-founder Collier left the company in early 2009 to join parent company Activision. In 2010, West and Zampella were fired by Activision for 'breaches of contract and insubordination',^[5][6] they soon founded a game studio called Respawn Entertainment. On May 3, 2014, Neversoft was merged into Infinity Ward.^[7]

• 1History
  • 1.12010 employee firings and departures
    • 1.1.4Lawsuits

History[edit]

Infinity Ward was founded in 2002.^[8][4]

2010 employee firings and departures[edit]

Dismissal of senior employees[edit]

On March 1, 2010, Activision amended its report with the Securities and Exchange Commission to add notification that two senior employees of Infinity Ward were being fired due to 'breaches of contract and insubordination'. This coincided with Jason West (Infinity Ward president, game director, co-CCO, and CTO) and Vince Zampella (CEO and co-founder of Infinity Ward) editing their profiles on the website LinkedIn to list Infinity Ward as a former employer as of March 2010. Reportedly, a meeting between Zampella, West, and Activision staff occurred on March 1, after which neither Zampella nor West were seen; this was followed by the arrival of security guards at the studio.^[9][10] It was later confirmed by Activision that West and Zampella had been dismissed, and had been replaced on an interim basis by Activision CTO Steve Pearce and head of production Steve Ackrich.^[11]

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick addressed Infinity Ward studio heads on March 2, 2010 about Zampella and West's dismissal. A second meeting was held with all of Infinity Ward's employees on hand. The outcomes of those meetings are currently unknown,^[12] but Activision has explained that Infinity Ward is still 'central' to the future of the Call of Duty franchise. Activision has used a new studio, Sledgehammer Games, to create an 'action-adventure' installment of the Call of Duty franchise. However, Activision halted the production of the action-adventure game which was reportedly 2–3 months into production and requested Sledgehammer Games to work side-by-side with Infinity Ward to make Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 instead.

Further departures[edit]

Following West and Zampella's firings, nearly half of the remaining Infinity Ward employees resigned. Throughout April and May 2010, 46 employees, among them lead designers and programmers who worked on Modern Warfare 2, abruptly left Infinity Ward. All of them have so far declined to comment on their reasons for leaving.^[13]

Infinity Ward 'Fully' Reconstructed[edit]

Vivendi chairman and CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy stated that Infinity Ward 'got over' their problems and are fully reconstructed and that Activision is very happy with the result. The executive went on to say that there will be three studios working on the Call of Duty franchise including the newly formed studio Sledgehammer Games.^[14][15]

Lawsuits[edit]

West and Zampella v. Activision[edit]

Following the initial news of West and Zampella's departure, it was reported that Infinity Ward has not received royalties from the sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and that the developer may have breached their contract with Activision by holding meetings with other video game publishers including Electronic Arts.^[12][16] This was revealed to be the reason behind the firings when West and Zampella filed a lawsuit against Activision on March 4, 2010 over 'substantial royalty payments' that Activision failed to pay them in the weeks leading up to their firing. According to their attorney Robert Schwartz, Activision had hired lawyers to investigate West and Zampella on charges of insubordination and breaches of contract in February, which culminated in their dismissal. West and Zampella's lawsuit was filed to force Activision to compensate West and Zampella for the unpaid royalties, and to secure contractual rights over the Modern Warfare branch of the Call of Duty franchise, among other things.^[17] If their lawsuit is successful, West and Zampella could retain the power to halt the development and release of any future games and downloadable content in the Modern Warfare setting.^[16]

On April 9, 2010 a countersuit was filed by Activision stating their actions in firing Zampella and West were justified, calling the two 'self-serving schemers'.^[18] Zampella and West's attorney responded to the countersuit the same day saying the publisher's claims are 'false and outrageous'.^[19] The trial date for this case was revealed on July 9, 2010 to be scheduled for May 23, 2011 but was rescheduled for December 14, 2011.^[20] It was then rescheduled again for March 29, 2012, and further rescheduled for June 1.^[21] On March 31, 2012, the two parties agreed to a confidential settlement.^[22] The countersuit mentioned that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was in development; it was released on November 8, 2011.^[23]

Infinity Ward Employee Group v. Activision[edit]

On April 27, 2010, 38 current and former employees of Infinity Ward brought a lawsuit against Activision. Calling themselves the 'Infinity Ward Employee Group' (IWEG), the plaintiffs seek between $75 million and $125 million in compensatory damages from Activision for unpaid bonuses for work on Modern Warfare 2. The lawsuit alleges that Activision withheld compensation from the plaintiffs in order to force them to stay with the studio and develop Modern Warfare 3.^[24] In addition, the plaintiffs are also seeking between $75 million and $500 million in punitive damages.^[25] The trial date for this case was revealed on July 9, 2010 to be scheduled for May 23, 2011.^[26]Activision issued a check for $42 million although an Infinity Ward Employee Group lawyer, Bruce Isaacs, stated that 'although it is a meaningful payment it is only a small portion of what we are seeking in litigation'.

Lawsuits against EA, West, and Zampella[edit]

Activision amended its lawsuit against West and Zampella to join Electronic Arts (EA) as a defendant on the grounds that EA began a conspiracy with West and Zampella.^[27][28] In the complaint, Activision accused Electronic Arts of intentionally interfering with contracts, engaging in unfair competition, and aiding and abetting breaches of fiduciary duty by West and Zampella. The complaint also alleged that West and Zampella refused to sign standard exit documents representing that they had returned all Activision property, including computer code. Activision alleged West and Zampella were 'motivated by envy and personal greed' and intentionally released game trailers for Modern Warfare 2 the same day Treyarch posted promotional videos for downloadable content for Call of Duty: World at War. The article also showed a transcript of text message between West and an unnamed Infinity Ward employee.^[29] In January 2011, the court was to rule on Activision's petition to join EA as a defendant. The trial date between Jason West and Vince Zampella vs. Activision was set for June 14, 2011 at the Central Civil West Courthouse at 9:00 am, case number SC107041.^[20] However several delays pushed the court hearing to the May 29, 2012. Due to problems assembling a jury pool the date was pushed back even further to June 1, 2012, with 22 days to reach a conclusion. The public trial did not go through, and instead a private settlement was made.

Respawn Entertainment[edit]

On April 12, 2010 the LA Times reported that West and Zampella were forming a new independent gaming studio known as Respawn Entertainment. They are seeking funding from EA through the EA Partners Program. West and Zampella will incorporate the rights to all intellectual property produced by them in the future.^[30][31][32] As of July 10, 2010, 38 of the 46 Infinity Ward employees who resigned from that studio following the firings of West and Zampella revealed through their LinkedIn and Facebook profiles that they had signed on with Respawn Entertainment.^[13][33] Respawn's first project, Titanfall, was released in March 2014.

Departure of Robert Bowling, 2012[edit]

On March 27, 2012 Robert Bowling issued the following statement on his Twitter account: 'Today, I resign from my position as Creative Strategist of Call of Duty, as a lead of Infinity Ward, and as an employee of Activision'. In response to this, Activision issued the following statement, 'We sincerely thank Robert for his many years of service. He's been a trusted and valued member of the Infinity Ward team. We wish him all the best on his decision to pursue future opportunities'.^[34] Bowling allegedly left because he was unhappy with the slow evolution of the game, as he responded with 'Too much 'pew pew' not enough new new' to a question on the subject.^[35]

Signs of disagreement between Bowling and Infinity Ward arose in a live interview with Machinima when he stated the following: 'I feel like we are in a fucking era where everyone is so focused on subscriber numbers and all that stuff that we need to get back to what I feel like we did so much better in the old days of just plain good will, like stuff like the LAN patch, yeah it is lower priority but let’s get it out the fucking door. Let’s just do it.' This could be a contributing factor to his resignation. Another factor could have been from the amount of harsh criticism the fans and players of Modern Warfare 3 gave him when certain aspects of the game, such as bugs and tweaks, appeared.^{[citation needed][36]}

Reception[edit]

Infinity Ward's first title, Call of Duty won 90 Game of the Year awards^[37] and 50 Editor's Choice Awards.^[38][39] It also continues to be among the highest-rated games, according to GameRankings.^[40]Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has also enjoyed massive commercial and critical success, selling over 13 million copies from its release in November 2007 through May 2009.^[41]

In 2010, Infinity Ward was ranked third by Develop 100 only running up to developer Nintendo and Bungie for the top 100 developers based on the sales of their games in the UK.^[42]

Infinity Ward's sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, earned over $550 million in sales in its first five days on the market, with $310 million of those sales made in the first 24 hours after the game's release.^[43]

The sequel to Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, sold 6.5 million copies in the US and UK alone and grossed $400 million within 24 hours of going on sale.^[44][45] Despite good sales, the game was criticized for being too similar to its predecessor.^{[by whom?]}

Game engines[edit]

All of Infinity Ward's Call of Duty games up until Infinite Warfare (2016) use the id Tech 3 (Quake III Arena) engine.^[46] The first two games used a proprietary license of the engine with the sequel featuring more powerful visuals and DirectX 9 support.Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare runs on a proprietary game engine (from a version of id Tech 3) with features that include true world-dynamic lighting, HDR lighting effects, dynamic shadows and depth of field.^[47]Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Black Ops II and the James Bond video game Quantum of Solace were developed by Treyarch using modified versions of Infinity Ward's engine.^[48]

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, uses an upgraded engine dubbed 'IW 4.0', which is a generation more advanced than the engine used in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.^[49]Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 uses the MW3 Engine, an improved version of the IW 4.0 engine. Improvements on the engine allow better streaming technology which allows larger regions for the game while running at a minimum of 60 frames per second, improvements to the audio of the engine have also been made.^[50]

Games[edit]

Sierra Pharaoh Patch

References[edit]

1. ^https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/311827/Infinity_Ward_is_setting_up_shop_in_Poland_with_new_studio.php
2. ^'The Modern Warfare Fight: Your Guide to Activision Vs. Infinity Ward'. Kotaku. April 15, 2010. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
3. ^'IGN Presents: The History of Call of Duty'. IGN. November 6, 2009. Retrieved November 8, 2010.
4. ^ ^ab'Activision Announces Long-Term Exclusive Publishing Partnership With Infinity Ward'. PR Newswire. Cision. May 21, 2002. Archived from the original on August 12, 2002. Retrieved June 15, 2019 – via Yahoo.com.
5. ^McElroy, Griffin (May 24, 2012). 'Activision v. West and Zampella case pushed back to June 1st'. Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on September 20, 2013. Retrieved June 11, 2013.Cite uses deprecated parameter |deadurl= (help)
6. ^Crecente, Brian (March 3, 2013). 'Respawn Entertainment co-founder Jason West retires'. Polygon. Vox Media. Archived from the original on May 30, 2013. Retrieved June 11, 2013.Cite uses deprecated parameter |deadurl= (help)
7. ^Klepek, Patrick (May 3, 2014). 'Infinity Ward, Neversoft Merging into Single 'Super Studio''. Giant Bomb. CBS Interactive. Retrieved May 3, 2014.
8. ^'Activision Announces Long-Term Exclusive Publishing Partnership With Infinity Ward'. PR Newswire Association LLC. Cision. May 21, 2002. Archived from the original on March 12, 2017. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
9. ^Thorsen, Tor (March 2, 2010). 'Top Infinity Ward devs fired for 'insubordination,' lawsuits 'expected' - News at GameSpot'. Gamespot. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
10. ^Fahey, Mike (March 3, 2010). 'Report: Modern Warfare Dev Head Leaves Company'. Kotaku. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
11. ^Gonzalez, Annette (March 2, 2010). 'Activision's Future Plans For Call Of Duty Call For New Developer - News'. GameInformer. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
12. ^ ^abKollar, Phil (March 1, 2010). 'UPDATE: Infinity Ward Vs. Activision'. GameInformer. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
13. ^ ^ab'Who Remains At Infinity Ward ?'. Cynicalsmirk.com. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
14. ^Tor Thorsen (November 19, 2010). 'Infinity Ward 'reconstructed' - Vivendi CEO'. GameSpot. CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved March 18, 2011.
15. ^Tim Bradshaw (November 19, 2010). 'Vivendi sees continued success for COD franchise'. Barcelona: Financial Times. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
16. ^ ^abWalker, Richard (March 4, 2010). 'Future Modern Warfare Releases Could Be Vetoed By West and Zampella'. Xbox360Achievements. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
17. ^Reilly, Jim (March 4, 2010). 'Infinity Ward Founders File Lawsuit Against Activision'. IGN. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
18. ^Reilly, Jim (April 9, 2010). 'Activision Countersues Former Infinity Ward Execs'. IGN. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
19. ^Reilly, Jim (April 9, 2010). 'West and Zampella Respond To Countersuit'. IGN. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
20. ^ ^ab'Los Angeles Superior Court - Civil Calendar'. Lasuperiorcourt.org. Archived from the original on October 31, 2013. Retrieved November 4, 2013.Cite uses deprecated parameter |deadurl= (help)
21. ^Rain Anderson (May 25, 2012). 'Activision vs West/Zampella trial delayed by a few days | That VideoGame Blog - Game news'. That VideoGame Blog. Retrieved November 4, 2013.
22. ^Dutton, Fred (May 31, 2012). 'Activision vs Zampella & West case settled out of court • News •'. Eurogamer.net. Retrieved November 4, 2013.
23. ^Reilly, Jim (April 9, 2010). 'Modern Warfare 3 In Development'. IGN. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
24. ^Ryckert, Dan (April 27, 2010). 'Activision Sued By New 'Infinity Ward Employee Group''. GameInformer. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
25. ^Reilly, Jim (April 27, 2010). 'Infinity Ward Group Sues Activision For Unpaid Bonuses'. IGN. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
26. ^Activision Vs. Infinity Ward Trial Date Set - PS3 News at IGN
27. ^Alex Pham (December 23, 2010). 'Activision sues Electronic Arts, seeks $400 million over Infinity Ward game studio'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
28. ^Christopher Grant (December 21, 2010). 'Activision claims EA and former IW execs schemed to 'inflict serious harm on the company''. Joystiq. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
29. ^Laura A. Seigle (December 21, 2010). 'Declaration of Laura A. Seigle in support of Activision's motion for leave to amend cross-complaint'. Superior Court of the State of California. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
30. ^Pham, Alex; Ben Fritz (April 12, 2010). 'Jason West and Vincent Zampella's new call of duty'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
31. ^Grant, Christopher (April 12, 2010). 'Respawn Entertainment announced by ex-IW heads, partnering with EA'. Joystiq. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
32. ^Reilly, Jim (April 12, 2010). 'Infinity Ward Founders Developing A 'Big Blockbuster''. IGN. Retrieved May 21, 2010.
33. ^'Who Remains at Infinity Ward?'. cynicalsmirk.com. May 25, 2010. Archived from the original on July 20, 2012. Retrieved May 25, 2010.Cite uses deprecated parameter |dead-url= (help)
34. ^'Call of Duty's Creative Strategist, Robert Bowling Exits Infinity Ward - Xbox 360 News At'. Xbox360achievements.org. Retrieved November 4, 2013.
35. ^https://twitter.com/fourzerotwo/statuses/234064594170171393
36. ^Control, Mission (February 22, 2012). 'Robert Bowling on classic maps for MW3: Keep classic maps outside of the DLC model'. Call Of Duty Map Packs. Archived from the original on February 14, 2013. Retrieved November 4, 2013.Cite uses deprecated parameter |deadurl= (help)
37. ^'Call of Duty'. Activision. Archived from the original on May 10, 2007. Retrieved May 2, 2007.
38. ^Coleman, Stephen (March 8, 2004). 'Call of Duty Wins Game Of The Year in the United States'. IGN Entertainment, Inc. Archived from the original on May 13, 2007. Retrieved January 15, 2019.
39. ^'Sales of Call of Duty 2 for the Xbox 360 Top One Million Units in the U.S.'GameSpot. CNET Networks, Inc. September 12, 2006. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007. Retrieved May 2, 2007.
40. ^'Call of Duty 2 - X720'. Game Rankings. CNET Networks, Inc. 2005. Archived from the original on March 15, 2007. Retrieved May 2, 2007.Cite uses deprecated parameter |dead-url= (help)
41. ^Radd, David (May 7, 2009). 'Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Sells 53 Million'. GameDaily. AOL LLC.Archived from the original on May 12, 2009. Retrieved January 15, 2019.Cite uses deprecated parameter |dead-url= (help)
42. ^'DEVELOP 100: THE WORLD'S MOST SUCCESSFUL GAME STUDIOS'. Develop-Online. Intent Media. May 7, 2011. Archived from the original on June 17, 2010. Retrieved January 15, 2019.Cite uses deprecated parameter |dead-url= (help)
43. ^'Activsion Modern Warfare I Earned 550 million in First Day'. Joystiq. November 18, 2009. Archived from the original on March 17, 2016.
44. ^Mcdonald, Keza (November 11, 2011). 'Modern Warfare 3 Has Biggest Launch Of Anything Ever'. IGN. Archived from the original on November 13, 2011. Retrieved November 14, 2011.Cite uses deprecated parameter |dead-url= (help)
45. ^Magrino, Tom (November 11, 2011). 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 sets new launch records'. Gamespot. CBS Interactive Inc.Archived from the original on November 15, 2011. Retrieved November 14, 2011.Cite uses deprecated parameter |dead-url= (help)
46. ^Modern Warfare 2 PC update: system specs, id Tech and Walmart price
47. ^Shea, Cam (June 13, 2007). 'Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare AU Interview'. IGN Xbox 360. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved March 17, 2008.
48. ^Robinson, Andy (June 9, 2008). 'News:Call of Duty: World at War - first details in OXM'. Computer and Video Games. Archived from the original on June 11, 2008.
49. ^Stead, Chris (July 15, 2009). 'The 10 Best Game Engines of This Generation'. IGN. Retrieved July 15, 2009.
50. ^'needhelponatest comments on IAm Josh Olin, Creative Strategist on Modern Warfare 3 AMA'. Retrieved August 5, 2011.
51. ^Dave Tach (June 12, 2013). 'Infinity Ward, Call of Duty: Ghosts and the nameless game engine that powers a first-person shooter phenomenon'. Polygon. Retrieved June 12, 2013.

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External links[edit]

• Official website

Pharaoh Patch 1.1