I'm sure you're all aware of the lawsuits between Infinity Ward and Activision these days regarding unpaid royalties for Modern Warfare 2, but did you know that it could lead to the demise of Infinity Ward as we know it? According to some analyst named Mike Hickley, he believes that once the next map pack for Modern Warfare 2 is completed by Infinity Ward, Activision will absorb the studio into them and spread the work on Modern Warfare 3 between other studios that haven't had anything to do with the Call of Duty franchise. Of course we'll still see the usual sub-par entries into the series from Treyarch (sorry guys, decent games but they don't live up to the quality of the IW ones), as well as Sledgehammer's "innovative take" on the Call of Duty series (possible MMO?).
So basically the Call of Duty series is never going to be the same. Now I won't say that it's going to suck balls, but it will definitely be different. Treyarch will still push out their release this fall so Activision can pad their pockets a little more, but I wouldn't expect Infinity Ward to put in significant work on Modern Warfare 3. And I'm sure there are some of you out there that would be happy to see another studio take the reigns, based on the amount of ridiculous complaints you guys have with the game.
What I'm hoping will happen with all of this is that Infinity Ward will be closed by Activision and hopefully most of the team will move over to "Respawn" which was created by the 2 former heads of Infinity Ward, and Respawn will release a first person shooter that makes you wonder how you ever played the call of duty games, which in turn will absolutely crush Activision's profits from Call of Duty, which is one of their biggest money makers. I think the future of gaming is going to be downloadable games, you see it right now with Microsoft putting older games up for download on their Xbox Live Marketplace, and with that will come a way for smaller studios to release their own games without the help of a publisher. Of course it won't be easy and there's still going to have to be investors involved for marketing, etc, but publishing companies like Activision will not hold the reigns of these developers anymore.... or maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part, but look at Apple's App Store and the boom it's given to smaller developers. Anyone can code a decent game and make big money, can you imagine if a gaming company like Respawn released a ridiculous FPS on their own? They would probably stand to make a huge amount of money. Look at Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, he dropped the record label and now gives away his music for free, only charging for special editions and he still makes quite a bit of money.
Now I understand that this method is ok for already established artists who have a following to support them, but I really think things are changing and the entertainment industry tycoons are going to lose their grip on artists whether it be music or video games, or anything really. But I guess the point of this post is that I kind of hope that the news of Activision closing Infinity Ward is true, if only to send shockwaves through the gaming community and make people hate Activision even more. It does suck for all those directly involved, so I hope that Respawn tries to snatch up their old team if they can, but ultimately I think it will be for the best. The only concern is that most people don't read all this crap on the internet or even know what studio is releasing a video game. I bet you can ask 100 people if they knew that half the Call of Duty games were developed by a totally different group of people and they would have no clue what you're talking about. But I guess for now we'll just have to wait and see how this all plays out. Hopefully all this controversy also causes Activision to price the 2nd Map Pack around the $10 mark instead of $15...
source: World of Tech and Gaming
