— On a warm Monday afternoon three months ago, the producers of the hit
video game Call of Duty found their offices under invasion.
Security guards with Secret Service-style radio earpieces showed up on the second floor of Infinity Ward headquarters in
and refused to tell employees why they were monitoring the entrances.
Staffers congregating in the hallways suspected it had to do with the
mysterious absence that day of their longtime bosses
“I was confused and afraid,” recalled
The next afternoon,
to announce that West and Zampella had been fired. The security guards
were making sure the two former executives didn’t enter the offices.
In the studio’s kitchen, he told Infinity Ward
employees that he regretted axing the key creators of the
multibillion-dollar “Call of Duty” military action games but that he
had no choice. He offered no explanation.
In the wake of West and Zampella’s departure, 35 out
of Infinity Ward’s nearly 100 employees have quit, including the lead
designers of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2,” the best-selling video
game of 2009. Most are now suing their former employer.
Infinity Ward’s near-implosion has brought to the
fore the rocky relationship between the freewheeling game culture and
the buttoned-down ethos of Activision’s Kotick, who recruits many of
his executives from consumer-product giants such as
Activision is behind the game industry’s biggest
titles, including “Guitar Hero,” the Tony Hawk skateboarding games and
“World of Warcraft,” which has 11.5 million online subscribers. The
company is known for Hollywood-style marketing, rapid-fire sequels and
frequent acquisitions. Its market value is
Kotick, however, has drawn the ire of gamers thanks
to his comments, including when he said he wanted “to take all the fun
out of making video games.” (He later said it was a humorous aside.) A
Facebook group, Gamers against
“In the development community, Activision is not
very popular right now. I’ve heard some pretty vitriolic assessments
since the Infinity Ward situation started,” said
This week, 45,000 professionals from the
for the annual E3 industry conference. But the events at Infinity Ward
have cast a shadow over Activision as it attempts to show off its new
games.
Kotick, who according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission has netted more than
moguls, whose names he drops in conversation. Though he tends to favor
sweaters over suits, the 47-year-old University of Michigan dropout
owns a private jet and attends the yearly conference for media bigwigs
in
At Activision’s
headquarters, he works in a suite walled off from the rest of the
office and accessible only by keycard. Employees have nicknamed it “the
capsule.”
Republican donor. He sits on the board of the Los Angeles County Museum
of Art and has a collection of mid-20th century works by artists such
as
The growth of Activision — once a tiny firm that Kotick and partners took over in 1990 for
behemoth has been accompanied by high-profile clashes with game
creators. The publisher has sued and been sued by development studios
including
Lawsuits are common among entertainment companies, but Activision’s legal brawls underscore its willingness to bulldoze
Three days after West and Zampella were forced out,
they sued Activision, contending that the company fired them to avoid
paying
“It is unusual that disputes get this personal,” said
Kotick shrugs off such criticisms, arguing that his company’s record isn’t unusual.
“I think our history of over 20 years speaks for
itself,” he said. “We have acquired more than 17 independent studios,
and virtually all of them are still run by their founders. That says a
lot about our culture of partnership.”
People who worked at Activision in the 1990s, when
it had fewer than 100 employees and for a time occupied one floor in an
office building, say Kotick had one goal.
“Bobby always had his sights on pushing
Activision’s first hit came in 1999 with Tony Hawk’s
“Pro Skater,” which pioneered the company’s winning formula: Identify a
hit and crank out new versions as frequently as the market will bear.
Over the next decade, Activision made nine Tony Hawk sequels.
In 2003, Activision bought “Call of Duty” creator
Infinity Ward and went on to release six games in seven years, selling
more than 62 million units.
Three years later, after “Guitar Hero” became a
surprise hit by allowing players to live out their rock star fantasies,
Activision acquired RedOctane, owner of the “Guitar Hero” brand name,
but not Harmonix, which made the game’s software. In less than four
years, Activision released 13 “Guitar Hero” sequels and spinoffs.
Although the strategy has been mostly successful, gamers complain that it comes at the cost of fresh ideas.
Kotick’s biggest coup came in 2008, when he orchestrated a merger with the game division of the French conglomerate
Kotick is counting on
“The world will become more connected,” said Blizzard President
Last year,
“Bobby played a masterful hand in building the company, and investors love him for it,” said
managing director at Arcadia Investments, a shareholder in Activision.
“But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t ruffled some feathers along the way.”
Those ruffled have included well-regarded game developers.
Its decision to buy “Guitar Hero” without Harmonix was followed by a lawsuit in which the developer and its parent company
said it was underpaid royalties for sequels that Activision produced.
The case was settled after a year-long private arbitration.
Double Fine’s game “Brutal Legend” was one of several titles on
roster that were not released after the merger because, Kotick said at
the time, they were “franchises that don’t have the potential to be
exploited every year across every platform.” Activision sued the
developer after EA agreed to publish the game instead, saying that it
never officially canceled “Brutal Legend.” The parties settled out of
court.
Commissioner for 16 years who reviewed several of Activision’s suits,
said the publisher’s accusations in its legal filings had not been
run-of-the-mill.
“The tone of these allegations are aggressive and drastic,” he said.
Kotick said his company’s language had been “measured and appropriate.”
After West and Zampella’s dismissal, Activision
altered the schedules of royalty payments to Infinity Ward developers
for “Modern Warfare 2.” Instead of basing payments on the previous
quarter’s sales, as they were for “Modern Warfare 1,” they have been
stretched over a two-year period until “Modern Warfare 3” is completed.
Many of the Infinity War employees who subsequently left have joined West and Zampella’s new video game studio,
“I assumed there would be a sweetener to get us to
stay,” said Shiring, among the former Infinity Ward staffers suing
Activision on allegations of unpaid royalties. “I was surprised when I
found out they were going to withhold money. It felt like they didn’t
appreciate our talent.”
An Activision spokesman said the company “retains the discretion to determine the amount and the schedule of bonus payments.”
Infinity Ward is now hiring to regroup for “Modern
Warfare 3,” while another Activision studio is working on November’s
“Call of Duty: Black Ops” and a third is producing a spinoff. Neither
has as successful a track record as Infinity Ward.
“Infinity Ward is still a fantastically talented
team of people, and there is no shortage of interest among talented
people who would love to be part of it,” Kotick said. “This is a studio
that will continue to be incredibly successful.”
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