Infinity Ward restructuring complete

By Fred Dutton Published 19 November, 2010

Activision "happy" with the results.

Restructuring is complete at beleaguered Modern Warfare factory Infinity Ward, owner Activision has announced.

According to IGN, Jean-Bernard Lévy, CEO of Activision parent company Vivendi, told the Morgan Stanley TMT Conference, "We have reconstructed Infinity Ward. We have been very happy with the way we have been able to reconstruct it."

The developer had been left in turmoil following the sacking of president Jason West and studio head Vince Zampella back in March. The duo then set up their own studio with EA, called Respawn Entertainment, luring many former Infinity Ward staffers over.

"The Treyarch studio, which made this year's game, has done better than what the Infinity Ward studio could achieve a year ago," Lévy also said.

The Treyarch-developed Call of Duty: Black Ops, which launched last week on DS, PC, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360, has been breaking sales records left, right and centre. Very good it was too.

"We also have a third studio which was created about a year-and-a-half ago called Sledgehammer," Lévy added, "which is working on Call of Duty properties. We believe this set up of studios working on Call of Duty has demonstrated it can do very well."

If rumours are true, that Sledgehammer title will see the Call of Duty series setting its sights on outer space.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • urban #1 2 years ago

    They have done better on the back of what was achieved last year - fixed

  • oldfruit #2 2 years ago

    "The Treyarch studio, which made this year's game, has done better than what the Infinity Ward studio could achieve a year ago,"

    Only on the back of the success of Infinity Ward. The average casual gamer wouldn't know who made their game.

  • sfp_noodle #3 2 years ago

    Ned the copy boy made the dev team?

  • FuzzyDuck #4 2 years ago

    They did better than IW?

    Shoddy PS3 port says "yo". Of course they were on about its performance at the till though.

  • Nephirion #5 2 years ago

    The coffee machine has been moved out into the hall and an attractive pot plant placed under the window ...

  • bad09 #6 2 years ago

    ""The Treyarch studio, which made this year's game, has done better than what the Infinity Ward studio could achieve a year ago,"

    / starts up PC BLOPS

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

  • hiddenranbir #7 2 years ago

    I like how they think it was the quality of black ops that broke the record sales, nothing to do with the momentum of franchise power.

  • dsmx #8 2 years ago

    Or in other words they've filled infinity ward with a bunch of yes men devoid of any creativity or personal opinion who are willing to churn out the same game year after year with only minor changes.

  • Zaiz #9 2 years ago

    I doubt Treyarch has gone from being the B team to the AAA team in one game...I mean, I haven't played it since it won't have proper servers and I don't trust Treyarch, but...yeah. Plus, Infinity Ward is probably going to be only slightly better than Treyarch, and Sledgehammer, I don't know.

    Oh, here's a better question: When are they going to make a new engine?

  • captain_Carl #10 2 years ago

    So how long til they refuse to pay this lot bonuses and half the studio leave?

  • CaptainKid #11 2 years ago

    "Very good it was too."
    Your "reviews" are useless, you don't even state on what platform you run the reviewed game.
    The PC game is BROKEN. The PS3 is suffering major lag atm.

    "Very good it was too" Fuck you.

  • Brianstorm #12 2 years ago

    Why is there so many emblems with BO FAIL being used then?

  • Sunyavadin #13 2 years ago

    In other news: New York city officials "Very happy" with the way they have "restructured" the WTC...

  • Straty88 #14 2 years ago

    So we're gonna end up having 3 Call of dutys every 2 years? i wouldn't put it past them tbh.....

  • Sunyavadin #15 2 years ago

    Negs?

    What? Something massive utterly collapsed, and all they've managed to produce in its place is a half finished construction site which may or may not turn out one day to actually be a: finished and b: any good

    I stand by my analogy!

  • jebus #16 2 years ago

    Call Of Duty in outer space - jesus, sounds ghastly

  • metalangel #17 2 years ago

    Call of Duty: Space. To remember all the sacrifices made by those who have fought wars in space and... hang on a second.

  • ToAks #18 2 years ago

    i have yet to try it so i wouldn't really know..

    that said i have tried MW2 and i am glad i never bought that as the SP there was utter rubbish.

    SP is what counts for me, if the SP is good then i'll play the MP.

    COD:MW had solid SP and MP, Battlefield bad company 1 sucked balls but bad company 2 F... rocked!, loved it.

    i'll borrow COD:BLOPS from a friend and try it, if its good then i'll complete the SP and if thats good then i'll try the MP and if thats good then i'll buy the game when its gone Platinuim/greatest hits lol.

  • Lunatic4ever #19 2 years ago

    what an ungrateful son of a bitch!

    If it wasn't for Infinity Ward CoD would be more of the same old.
    I sincerely hate him for this comment.

  • FenderMaster #20 2 years ago

    Guitar Hero is dead
    Tony Hawk's is dead
    Spiderman games are not successful
    CoD remains insanely popular, gets 3 releases in 2 years...
    WoW remains the most popular MMO on the market

    Activision has no understanding of franchise fatigue, they run everything into the ground, how long until CoD turns into Guitar Hero?

  • Zaiz #21 2 years ago

    @Sunyavadin

    Like how the Germans restructured London during the blitz! I get it. *wink wink* Totally like a games company filled with rich asshats arguing over how rich they should be falling apart.

  • darth_paul #22 2 years ago

    @EVERYONE

    guys guys guys... when the suit says that "Treyarch has done better this year than IW last year", he means that Treyarch has sold more copies, not that they made a better game, or original one. One sentence, different meanings, ok!? ;-)

    as soon as Bobby manages to kill the COD franchise (around the time Mac Tavish is kicked into space; next year it seems), its Bobby's time to be kicked out
    Edited by darth_paul at 20/11/10 @ 19:03

  • jstar #23 2 years ago

    Bobby Kotick has turned Activision into a publishing behemoth that owns a company that controls some of the most valuable IPs in the whole industry. I think you'll find he is here to stay.

    Quite frankly this internet geek hatred of a man who just runs a company is really rather pathetic. He runs the company in exactly the same way as every other person runs theirs. He exploits the revenue opportunities open to him. Call of Duty is a commercial piece of trash. The first game was shit, he second game was shitter and the third seems to be somewhere inbetween the two. It has a good multplayer componnent that has caused all this needless fuss but it is hardly shakespeare. Why on earth would you give even the slightest fuck if there were 100 CoD related releases a year.
    Edited by jstar at 20/11/10 @ 19:40

  • dirtysteve #24 2 years ago

    @dsmx Beat me to it, that was pretty much word-for-word what I was thinking. :)

  • Bleemo #25 2 years ago

    "Or in other words they've filled infinity ward with a bunch of yes men devoid of any creativity or personal opinion"

    Your song is not ours...we are we are...kill meeeee

  • Kamata #26 2 years ago

    "The Treyarch studio, which made this year's game, has done better than what the Infinity Ward studio could achieve a year ago,"

    The very reason Treyarch began to make playable games was down to them utilising Infinity Ward's game engine.
    They couldn't have done it without IW's guidance.

    Watch this space >>>> Respawn Entertainment
    Edited by Kamata at 21/11/10 @ 13:37

  • Trikk #27 2 years ago

    @jstar You're obviously extremely new to gaming, so please stop talking as if you understand anything about quality. Modern Warfare was the 4th game in the series; Black Ops is the 7th.

  • Noble6 #28 2 years ago

    @jstar

    Lol. Highly diplomatic FAIL

  • Freek #29 2 years ago

    Yes, allot, if not all entertainment companies have similar buisiness practices. The difference is in how you present yourself to the public.
    EA and Sony have already figured it out. Present your company as a friendly place with a passion for gaming, with a little humilaty and people will like you. Took a little time and effort to make that change but it's working for them. Sony whent from "those assholes who ask 600 bucks for thier shit console" to "funny man Kevin Butler". And EA went from "souless sequel factory" to "garden of creativity". It's all down to good PR.

    Activision doesn't care and therefor will continue to have a bad public image.

  • Fab4 #30 2 years ago

    @Kamata,

    You won't find a more playable CoD online than CoD3. 24 player; 1hr long matches; varied, well designed maps that arent just rabbit-warrens; a class system that encourages team-play; no lame-ass perks/killstreaks; an innovative p2p networking system that removes that 'stutter' lag that all CoDs from MW on (and also CoD2) have had, and you select what lobby you join. All developed within the space of 9 months.

    You shouldnt confuse being told what to do by your boss (acti) as a lack of creativity

    Edit: Oh, and I forgot the biggest thing about CoD3 online...real, in-game host migration, none of this 'lets go back to the lobby and pick a new host' crap.
    Edited by Fab4 at 22/11/10 @ 09:05

  • geeza2020 #31 2 years ago

    Got to play this at the weekend at a mates. Its exactly the same game, with exactly the same problems as last year. Too short single player campaign with little to no replay value, and a multiplayer thats totally devoid of teamwork and tactics. Rubbish.

  • sneetch #32 2 years ago

    "We have reconstructed Infinity Ward. We have been very happy with the way we have been able to reconstruct it."

    Why do I imagine this interview being given outside their lightning-blasted German castle as Infinity Ward lumbers around in the background, unable to talk and shying away from fire?