Jason West and Vince Zampella, formerly studio heads of Infinity Ward, are moving forward with a lawsuit against their former employer, Activision. Phil Kollar of Game Informer partnered with Eric Chad, an IP attorney, to get to the bottom of what really happened that fateful day, when security guards were ordered to escort the two developers off the premises. Phil uncovers some pretty disturbing material while skimming the 16 page legal document; some of which essentially infers that Activision, and/or CEO Kotick, were looking for reasons to fire West and Zampella without real cause.

So how can the lead developers of 2009’s biggest shooter be let go for no real reason? My money is on the fact that Kotick didn’t want them to jump ship, and enacted a pre-emptive strike before they started work on a new IP with a different competitor. Read the full article here and decide for yourself. Read more… »

Between yesterday and today, loose lips have been sinking the ship at Infinity Ward.  While details are scarce, two studio heads have been terminated from their positions.

The news was first brought to the public’s attention when G4 reported that studio heads Vince Zampella and Jason West met with Activision and neither were seen again… by the staff.  Reportedly, relations between the developer and publishers have been fairly tense, and all hell broke loose yesterday afternoon when “a bunch of bouncer-types” appeared outside their offices. Read more… »

Over the weekend Activision Blizzard stirred up some controversy by sending a cease-and-desist order to a group of fans working on a fan-made King’s Quest sequel dubbed “The Silver Lining.”

It is important to note that this group of fans, working under the name Phoenix Online, has gotten into legal trouble before. Back in 2005, then owner of the King’s Quest franchise Vivendi sent Phoenix Online a cease-and-desist letter. After a few months on negotiating, Vivendi granted Phoenix a non-commercial fan license to use the King’s Quest settings. Read more… »

Covering 20th century warfare in video games is beginning to run its course.  With a reoccurring Call of Duty title out every year, the locales are beginning to thin out.  But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any settings left.

Right now, little is known about this year’s Call of Duty, but sources are pointing toward South East Asia.  The Vietnam War is a landscape that’s been relatively unscathed in comparison to World War II and the conflict in the Middle East.  What kind of controversy can we expect this time? Read more… »

Yesterday during an analyst conference, Activision CEO Mike Griffith announced that the publisher is going to refocus its rhythm games into two main franchises, Guitar Hero and DJ Hero. According to Griffith, this will help Activision reach a “broader audience.”

In 2010 Activision plans to release less than ten music game SKUs. While that still sounds like a lot, it’s not even half of what 2009 saw. Griffith explained, “This year, fewer SKUs will service a broader audience.” Read more… »

Alright, show of hands, how many of you played Tony Hawk: Ride?  Two of you?  Wow, more than I expected!  Now, did either of you actually enjoy playing it?  Yeah, that’s what I thought.  Ride had a lot of great ideas – and a lot of potential – but came up short of just about every goal it set out to achieve.  However, it seems that a new title in the series may be on the way, if a recent Tweet by franchise namesake Tony Hawk is any indication.

The statement from Hawk reads: “Just met with @robomodo about our next project and it’s already much better than I expected. Details soon. Chicago is not warm.” Read more… »

In a recent interview, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has some choice words regarding the publisher’s use of the Spider Man IP.

Kotick stated, “Our Spider-Man games have sucked for the last five years. They are bad games. They were poorly rated because they were bad games. We went away from what is Spider-Man. It’s about web-slinging. If you don’t do web-slinging right, what is the fantasy of Spider-Man?” Read more… »

Blizzard has been a heavy hitter this year, with the announcement of the latest expansion for World of Warcraft and development of Starcraft II and Diablo III chugging along, but perhaps the biggest news to come from the gaming giant was given by J. Allen Brack, who stated the company is definitely looking to return to the console market… “at some point.”

This might come as a shock to some fans, who’ve been convinced that Blizzard is against the console market since its last console game was released over nine years ago. However, this begs the question, just which game is Blizzard hoping to return to the market with?

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Some of you may have seen this teaser for a new Transformers game during the Spike VGA’s. Today publisher Activision released a few new details pertaining to High Moon’s upcoming action/adventure game.

Sub-titled “War for Cybertron,” the new title will serve as a prequel. Like the previous Transformers game, players will be able to play as both Autobots and Decepticons through two unique campaigns. According to Activision “The AUTOBOT campaign tells a story of heroism to save their home planet against overwhelming odds. The DECEPTICON campaign tells a story of an unquenchable thirst for power to control the universe.” Read more… »

In case you missed it, Modern Warfare 2 features an infamous (optional) airport level that requires you to pose as a terrorist, and watch as your crew mows down innocent russian civilians. Matt Turner, producer of the Army of Two series, had this to say regarding the actions of his competitor’s studio:

“You’re playing a CIA agent, it’s designed to show the atrocities… it’s pretty awful and if you fail to see that side of it than you’re not getting the whole picture. That being said, I thought it took it a little far; it was pretty out there. But I like seeing that they have guts like that.”

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If you are like me, and for your own sake I hope you aren’t, then there are a few things that are guaranteed to cause excitement, exhilaration and possibly even jubilation.

These include Samurai Pizza Cats, any superhero comic and teen romance vampire novels. I mean monster trucks, ignore the last one, I said monster trucks. Anyway, at the top of that list is almost certainly Transformers, so hit the jump to see the debut trailer from GameTrailers.com for Transformers: War For Cybertron. Read more… »

There has always been a divide for gamers when discussing developers and publishers. On the one hand, most gamers will be more than happy to explain how their favorite developers have helped broaden their love of gaming, from the moment they first jumped into the LucasArts world of Zombies At My Neighbours, right through until Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

However, dare to mention the part that the publisher had to play in such a great title, and you are bound to be bombarded with ramblings of how they stifled all creativity, or ruined the project entirely.

Activision and Electronic Arts bear the majority of verbal rock throwing from the gaming community. But ask yourself this: where would we be without them?

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