More Top Staff Leaves Infinity Ward


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Despite rumours of Call of Duty developers being "held hostage" over withheld bonus payments, it nevertheless looks like more of those involved with the series have begun to leave Infinity Ward following the sacking of the studio's founders.

As revealed by the pair's Linkedin profiles (pictured below), Todd Alderman, a Lead Designer and one of the key personnel involved in Modern Warfare's multiplayer (not to mention Modern Warfare 2's story), left the company last week, as did Francesco Gigliotti, Infinity Ward's lead software engineer. Both were long-serving members of the studio, Alderman having been with Infinity Ward for eight years, Gigliotti for seven.

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Their departures come only a month after publishers Activision sacked Infinity Ward bosses Vince Zampella and Jason West over allegations of "breaches of contract and insubordination". It's unclear what Zampella and West are planning in the wake of their firing, though the pair have signed with a Hollywood talent agency.

The circumstances under which Alderman and Gigliotti left the studio are unclear, though a source close to the studio suggests they both resigned. We'll update this post if we hear anything more.

Tomato Sauce

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I'm sure they'll all make a new studio and partner with a different publisher... so no big loss. The Call of Duty franchise is starting to get stale, anyway, and I'd rather see them try the new ideas Activision wouldn't let them try.

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It seams that Activision might be cleaning house to weed out folks they no longer want around.

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It seams that Activision might be cleaning house to weed out folks they no longer want around.

They left IW, they weren't fired. It's been rumoured once those bonuses were paid out we'd see a lot more core IW staff jumping ship.

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They left IW, they weren't fired. It's been rumoured once those bonuses were paid out we'd see a lot more core IW staff jumping ship.

It's more than likely Activision forced them to resign.

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Hope they go start a new studio and start pumping out good games like CoD4 again, without all this locked down PC crap.

That's what I'm hoping happens.

I'm sick of all of these big publishers thinking they can do whatever the hell they want. It's time to take a stand against them.

If only more publishers/developers were like Valve...

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It's more than likely Activision forced them to resign.

Modern Warfare 3 - even more of the same because we fired the core staff?

Doubt it.

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It's more than likely Activision forced them to resign.

Just IMO, but I think that's probably even less likely. Why would you force the lead on your games to resign? There's no reason to.

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Whose blog is this? It seems they have some insider info that no one else is reporting so surely someone working for Acti or IW?

He's also comparing West and Zampella to Hitler - the guy lost all credibility when he put that footnote in the end and the guy is clearly off his rocker. Fact of the matter is - they did not get paid what they earned! Simple as!

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Good job, guys. You're the ones doing all the hard work, so don't let those fat cats push you around. They'll be singing a different tune when they realize they're spending more money than bringing it in. Keep it up and you'll get the last laugh!

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Get used to reading this story over the coming months & expect them all to reunite under a new independent studio.

I sure hope so. IW is definitely a talented group of developers, and they deserve better than the crap that Activision gave them. Seriously, firing employees to avoid paying them their due royalties? No amount of rationalization on Kotick's part (or his followers' part) will ever make that acceptable.

I always thought it was a little peculiar that they decided to work with Activision in the first place, since the whole reason that they broke away from 2015 was their desire to get away from EA (from my understanding of the situation).

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If only more publishers/developers were like Valve...

MW 2 would already be 4 years in the making, release date unannounced if that were the case. :rofl:

But I do agree. More publishers need to reform to being less nazistic, more like VALVe, just no "VALVe time".

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Boy do I just LOVE hearing this!! I have been hoping for the longest time that IW is dismantled and it seems to be becoming reality. After the bull**** that MW 2 was with their stupid buddy matching system instead of proper dedicated servers and their complete lack of caring when it came to idiot hackers is the reason why I want them to leave IW that is being commandeered by dumbass Activision that don't know the ass from the mouth when it comes to designing modern games. Go form a new studio that will not be run by a bunch of video game Nazis!

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He's also comparing West and Zampella to Hitler - the guy lost all credibility when he put that footnote in the end and the guy is clearly off his rocker. Fact of the matter is - they did not get paid what they earned! Simple as!

I love how he slams video game journalists for injecting their opinions in articles, when he basically does the same thing the whole time. He also extrapolates way too much from articles he's read. I give him that video game journalists do that a lot (and I hate it), but he's being hypocritical about it.

He could very well be right, but something doesn't add up about that.

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Fact of the matter is - they did not get paid what they earned! Simple as!

Really? Says who?

I love how he slams video game journalists for injecting their opinions in articles, when he basically does the same thing the whole time.

No way! He injects his opinions in blog posts in his personal blog! If you can't tell the difference between a private hobbyist blog and gaming journalism, we have a serious problem on our hands!

I give him that video game journalists do that a lot (and I hate it), but he's being hypocritical about it.

Where's the hypocrisy? He's not a journalist. He doesn't claim to be. In fact, he makes it perfectly clear that he's using his personal blog to post his personal opinions.

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