Its Been A Long Time Coming....(Exodus in Motion) *UPDATE*

*UPDATE* 26. That is the number of talented devs and designers that have taken their leave from Activision's very own prison, Infinity Ward, and have either joined forces with Vince Zampella and Jason West at Respawn, or aren't employed as of yet.

The original seven to join Respawn were:

Todd Alderman - Lead Designer on MW2
Mackey McCandlish - Lead Designer on MW2
Mark Grisby - Lead Animator on MW2
John Paul Messerly - Lead Animator on MW2
Chris Cherubini - Lead Environmentalist on MW2
Rayme C. Vinson - Software Engineer on MW2
Jon Shiring - Programmer on MW2

The latest to jump ship from Infinity Ward are Senior Designers Mohammad Alavi, Chad Grenier and Brent McLeod as well as Programmer Chris Lambert and Jason McCord all last Friday. In addition to them three more left this past weekend: Level Designer Keith Bell, Designer Charlie Wiederhold and Level Designer Preston Glenn.

*UPDATE* Five more people left yesterday: Lead Character Artist Joel Emslie, Weapons Artist Ryan Lastimosa,  Artist Brad Allen, Lead Programmer Robert Field and (not a dev but still important) HR/recruitment specialist Kristin Cotterell.

All I can say is that this is testament to Activision's bad handling of an easily fixable situation; all of this could have been avoided and the people who matter, the Gamers, could've had MW3 in our hands in 2011/12. Now I doubt if the game will be put out and even if it is, if it will be worth it to even rent the game. I'll be checking that Respawn page like a hawk for any changes though, that's for sure...

-Armand

Dividing Up the Problem - Activision Is Digging Their Own Grave

Well we all know that Activision completely boned themselves over, but how much exactly? After the formation of Respawn Entertainment Activision, and seemingly to quell the uprising against them of Infinity Ward’s remaining devs leaving in droves, the company announced through Dan Amrich and his Facebook:

“Vince and Jason had very large bonuses; those bonuses are being redistributed to everybody else, to the people who did not allegedly attempt to steal company secrets. (Please see Activision’s countersuit for details about Vince and Jason’s surreptitious attempts to photocopy and scan sensitive documents.) Activision is not pocketing that bonus money; it’s still going to the people who work at IW. But you have to work at IW to get it, see? :) I don’t want to see talented people screwed out of a paycheck any more than you do.”

Yes the facetious smiley was there as well as the blatant potshot at the devs who’ve already left IW. In my opinion there really was no sensitive document scanning and Activision is pocketing some of the money because they are the ones who determine the bonus size no? What’s to stop them from saying $100,000 is the bonus that was to be shared when it was more likely millions? Either way this entire pot of stew is definitely spoiled and I really hope Activision gets what’s coming to them. I don't think they realize that this entire fiasco started because of these bonuses. They're literally just dividing up their issues and tossing a few bucks to the people who remain at IW. I don't doubt either that the bonus can be revoked if they were to leave and seek employment elsewhere.

-Armand

Small tidbit concerning the seemingly increasing hostilities between EA and Activision; started of course with the fiasco that is still unfolding between Activision and Infinity Ward ex-staff members Vince Zampella and Jason West. More on that HERE, HERE and  HERE.

Yesterday though Activision, through press release, boasted its "impressive sales" of the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Map Pack and how the company is lifting its quarterly fiscal outlook.

EA, being Activision's well known competitor, took a quick potshot at its excited rival; Jeff Brown, EA's director of corporate communications quipped this to Kotaku.com: "This is kind of like announcing: The race horse I shot last month has won the Triple Crown !"

EA of course is currently backing Zampella and West along with their new company Respawn Studios through the EA Partners program, which allows the two canned dev heads to own their IPs that they create...the reason this whole mess started in the first place (Infinity Ward vs. Activision).

Oh well....maybe they can make a sitcom out of this or something. This is entertaining, but add the guys from Harold & Kumar and SNL and then we'll have a good show. What do you think?

-Armand