Prediction: Infinity Ward to Break Up With Activision

In a recent posting Golgotron makes a prediciton that Infinity Ward may be leaving Activision sometime in the near future are relates it to how Bungie returned to their independent status after the release of Halo 3 last year.

The article also points out several events from the past year and just the past few months that they think indicates the possibility of Infinity Ward breaking up with Activision.

[wxer]

Hell no
i dont think that greedy a**hole let them go
there are his gold chicken

[Pennywise]

I don't think he would want to let them go, but its a golden goose, not chicken... haha

[Jsynn7]

The pic to this article is awesome lol

[Halo3 MLG Pro]

Golden Chicken? BWHAHAHAHA!

[No FanS Land]

I ROFL'ed when I saw the picture.

[evrfighter]

Well more and more people learn about Bobby Kotick every day. In my opinion the words Bobby and Kotick are going to start being bad for business in the next year or two.

[zeeshan]

The guy didn't become rich because he buys his own games. He became rich because of us. Especially the ones who keep buying updates of the same game over and over again. Guitar Hero and COD MW1/2/WaW says Hi

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

Activision would never let go of CoD IP, but any game studio knows that the studio is only as good as its people. If you don't like them, you can coerce your co-workers and start your own company.

The original members of IW, was part of 2015, Inc which created Medal of Honor.

When you are buying a game studio, unless you can make the employees happy they can leave anytime. So essentially the only thing you can count on is the IP.

[DTClown]

Big Bob just sold millions of shares of his personal Activision stock...twice! To me, those are the actions of someone getting ready to lose his cash cow. Sell now while the stock is worth the most because once IW goes independent, that stock is gonna tank!

[kaveti6616]

Not gonna happen. IW are gonna miss the massive funding that Activision provides them. Activision is a lot like the Lakers owners, and IW are like Kobe Bryant. They need each other. IW wants the freedom, and that's what Activision gives them. Activision wants the money and attention, and that's what Infinity Ward gives them. Perfect relationship.

[NamelessTed]

It clearly isn't a perfect relationship as IW and Activision have had disagreements. When IW wanted to make a modern warfare game Activision turned them down and made sure that CoD2 was WW II themed. IW also wanted their newest game to be called "Modern Warfare 2" but Activision made them add the "Call of Duty" name to the game.

[Tr10wn]

They don't made them to add the name to the game, they know that the franchise is "Call of Duty" and not "Modern Warfare" and that they will loose money and people, after all they were the developers of the first Call of Duty so stick to your roots or loose peoples.

[AAACE5]

Never say never!

If they were to separate from Activision, you would see several companies engage in a blood war to try to get them... especially MS and Sony! No matter how you feel about CoD games, you better believe that Sony and MS both wish they had exclusive rights to the game, especially with the amount of sales.

And as much as the fanboys on here like to talk about MS throwing money around, you know they would give IW a blank check and possibly hand over Halo duties to them as well!

[Baka-akaB]

I wouldnt say they are unhappy , actually their relationship seems quite close to perfection , as there can't ever be any anyway .

from IW's boss himself , we learned that Activision was already bending over whatever expensive budget figures IW would have needed for their mw2 blockbuster . However IW themselves told them they wouldnt need as much as activision expected ...

So far it's a big win/win , IW gets whatever they need or want , and Activison get it's biggest game at lower cost .

Activision is indeed a "bad guy" , but the funny thing they werent actually that involved in most controversial decisions surrounding MW2... they were either IW's own decision , or had their full support .

[InFAMOUS1]

Any publisher would write IW a blank cheque and say "have at it". The next big name that comes to mind would be EA. However I think after the money IW has made off the COD series, I can actually see them becoming their own publisher/developer. This would give them the complete freedom from a creative and financial standpoint. Bethesda did the same thing and they are LOVIN it!

[Nastycrew]

they better break up with Activision. As of today, its pure hate for IW / activision

[Baka-akaB]

I doubt they care , and if they split with activision it wont be for better games or to re-earn some people's misguided respect , but to make more cash ... wich is unlikely for the times to come .

[Tr10wn]

Yeah pure hate and yet people who hate IW still buy MW2 like the Boycott of steam... hypocrites

[dragonelite]

Think that microsoft is willing to give IW a huge pay roll if they join them as first party devs.

[Baka-akaB]

I highly doubt that . They let bungie go and it was an even bigger cashflow .

granted in the end they win with bungie still developping and having made most of it's reputation on 360 . Still the point is it was theirs and they let it go , with much benefits ..

Why would microsoft use an unsurmountable amount of money to acquire something they already got ? The 360 version of cod already got the biggest sales , they wouldnt gain that much by making them exclusive .

Unless they are assigned to Halo .

[omni_atlas]

Isn't there a FS: IW sign somewhere in modern warfare 2? Came up on N4G a few days ago.

[Milky]

what does FS: IW mean?

[omni_atlas]

FW: IW

For Sale: Infinity Ward

[InFAMOUS1]

Yes there is a sign that says that! However I would not read much into it, game devs place their name on all things like that, simply for trademark purposes. This whole thing is very DO-ABLE but after COD4 and MW2 I dont think ANTIvision is going to care how much they want or what they want to use it for. As a result IW will most likely stay for the money/freedom

[tdrules]

Infinity Ward is like the nice girl going out with the wanker.
hard to look at but hard to stop

[KilZoneGeneralStrife]

Stick it to the man.but. . .if Kotick knew this might happen. .and he sold his shares. .and they get de-valued the day IW leaves, . .thats Insider Trading?which is illegal.but,goodluck to anyone trying to prove he knew it would happen

[RedVsBlue]

Not going to happen. Infinity Ward would not want to lose the Call Of Duty / Modern Warfare franchise which is a gold mine

[ballsofsteel]

i doubt activision would let them go but i really hope Iw hands the COD franchise to activsion and says goodbye and formes a new company and new FPS franchise

[RAAAAAGE]

Activision lost Harmonix who went to work for a rival publisher, and Activision just put another dev on the Guitar Hero games and they still sell well.

If Activision loses IW, they still have Treyarch to make CoD games, and they will still sell.

[Baka-akaB]

Nah ... they would hire another studio old or new , for the main cod title , not Treyarch . I'm sure treyarch wants to believe that someday they'll do something else than clone duty and licensed crap ... but they wont becomes a star at activision .

People only lazily and out of habit buy trey's cod games . Because they figure it isnt o bad for a year while wiating for the next true COD .
In the event of IW leaving and Trey becoming the main studio , those people would flee .

People follow hype , but there are hardly any positive one around treyarch .

In the case of Guitar games it's a bit different , sure the brand name easily survived .. but red octane wasnt really a crappy studio and they easily aped Harmonix . The only people complaining and who cares , would be guys like myself , obessed by details such as song charts being weird and silly in every recent guitar hero games since harmonix left , or their choices of music .
But the general population ? They'll just happily makes kurt kobain sings britney spears .

[ballsofsteel]

obviously activison would continue the franchise( probably with treyarch as you said) and for a time it would sell until IW comes out with their own game which most definetly would be better. treyarch doesn't have the talent that IW has will continually remake the same game with minor adjustments. IW on the other hand will make great new improvements as time goes on. people always forget that COD made it's name with COD4 so while this is an established franchise it doesn't have the long track record of the GTA franchise or something if infinity ward were able to make a new franchise and make big improvements of their past games i have doubt that hardcore gamers would then flock IW's game and then the causlas would follow

[Heartnet]

Nah they cant otherwise who would pay them? the publisher pays the company to make the game and then the profits from the game go to the Publisher.. So with no Publisher the game cannot be made

[Grimhammer00]

Umm, just a question - didn't Activision offer IW some undisclosed MASSIVE budget that IW SAYS they turned down? Yet the game still had a OVERWHELMING $200,000,000!!!!!!!!!!

[Pillage05]

I doubt it. I believe they'd have to give up the COD name...quite possibly Modern Warfare as well. They're making way too much money under the activision name to give it all up. I wouldn't in their shoes. If I were them, I at most try to make activision only allow them to make cod games.