Culling the herd

From Blue's News:

G4tv.com reports on drama at Infinity Ward that includes the apparent departure of studio heads Vince Zampella and Jason West amid allegations of "breaches of contract and insubordination." The story began with G4 reporting that a bunch of "bouncer-types" showed up at the Call of  Duty developer's offices following a meeting Activision held with Zampella and West (reportedly the pair were not seen in the offices following the meet). This was followed by Kotaku showing a shot of Jason West's Facebook status reading "Jason West is drinking. Also, no longer employed." Likewise, Jason West's LinkedIn Profile now lists his tenure at Infinity Ward as January 2001 – March 2010. Details on exactly what went down are still vague, but the most significant clue seems to be in an Activision SEC filing stating: "The Company is concluding an internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward. This matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation. At present, the Company does not expect this matter to have a material impact on the Company."

You might recall the names, as West and Zampella were the two IW employees that took it upon themselves to be the biggest douches when the dedicated server news broke back in October. The pair out-douched even Mackey McCandlish and Ryan Lastimosa, who served up the "not balanced for lean" bullshit - with a side of "yes, we think you're all stupid" - in the now-infamous Best Buy webchat.

Jason West is (or was) was Infinity Ward's Chief Technology Officer, President and Chief Operating Officer. Zampella is (or was) Infinity Ward's CEO and CFO. Given that both were significant players in the billion-dollar boondoggle that is Modern Warfare 2 (West in particular is credited with being the game's writer and director), Activision's decision to fire them is rather stunning.

At the same time, though, the claim of "insubordination" should hardly come as a surprise. West and Zampella are two of the most arrogant twats in the business, and it's natural that their open contempt for a segment of their customer base would eventually translate into open contempt for their benefactors at Activision.  I'll be fascinated to see whether they'll be able to land jobs with another developer.

UPDATE:  the plot thickens.

James Walker at bingegamer.net apparently has a few sources at Activision who've dished some additional revelations:

1.) Infinity Ward has yet to be paid a single dime in royalties for Modern Warfare 2, which has earned Activision over one billion dollars in revenue. (NOTE: To clarify, everyone who spoke with me mentioned this. Whether or not IW and Activision had an agreement in place for royalty payments is unknown at this time. It’s just curious that everyone brought this up.)

2.)  Their current contractual obligation expires in October, which could explain why Activision has (allegedly) been looking to dump Modern Warfare 3 off to another developer. The probem with this is that Infinity Ward still technically owns the rights to the Call of Duty franchise (at least partially). Some people close to the situation see Activision’s current actions as a power play to try and bully Infinity Ward into either staying with Activision in one capacity or another (buyout or contract extension) or to at least acquire the Call of Duty name.

(ED NOTE: If the above paragraph makes zero sense, I apologize. It was 4am EDT, I was writing short-hand and half of what was being told went way over my head. The short of it: There’s a contract in place regarding Infinity Ward’s principals that expires in October. Basically IW, while technically owned by Activision, is autonomous in the same way Blizzard is. That’s what the “contract” talk is about. Again, sorry for any confusion.)