Ex-Infinity Ward employee recalls dramatic firing of ‘Call Of Duty’ heads
A developer on the frontline of the infamous and game-changing firing of Call Of Duty creators Jason West and Vince Zampella from Infinity Ward in 2009 has revealed what happened next.
After creating the original Call Of Duty in 2003 and taking it to new heights with Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007, both West and Zampella were abruptly fired from Infinity Ward by parent company Activision in 2009.
The pair were reportedly let go for “insubordination” and went on to set up Respawn Entertainment with the backing of Electronic Arts. Roughly 40 per cent of the Infinity Ward team left the studio soon after, despite the looming release of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, with a majority of those joining Respawn to work on the likes of Titanfall and Apex Legends.
Now former Infinity Ward designer Paul Sandler has spoken about what happened at the studio in the aftermath of the firing.
Sharing an article called “That day when Activision fired Jason and Vince” on LinkedIn, Sandler revealed that the Infinity Ward team were “stunned” to hear the news of the incident, with security guards manning the doors to ensure neither West or Zampella could return to the offices.
“The fact that our respected studio-heads, our leaders, had been canned in such a sudden and cold-blooded fashion brought the entire team a collective feeling of anger and a deep sense of unfairness.”
“Jason and Vince had been instrumental in fostering one of the most talented and critically acclaimed development teams in the industry, which created the most popular and successful video game brand and franchise in the history of video games,” he continued, with many developers talking about quitting in solidarity.
Activision heads apparently tried to quash this by offering the team a 50 per cent pay increase alongside their bonuses for shipping Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
“If anything, most of the team was feeling even more upset,” said Sandler. “The executive spoke again: ‘Look, I get it. I know this is a tough situation. But, just take the money and get over it’.”
“On the following day and continuing throughout the next several weeks, Infinity Ward team members started to quit one by one,” he wrote.
Explaining his reason for writing the article, Sandler explained: “I have been inspired to start writing short articles about my 20+ year journey in video game development. In no particular order, starting with the most tumultuous and volatile event that I can remember.”
In other news, Capcom has released a survey to gauge interest in a number of remakes and sequels for its iconic franchises.
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Ali Shutler
NME
