Information from the Activision/Infinity Ward showdown continues to surface, and the second potential casualty is the studio’s big boss Vince Zampella himself.
More from Infinity Ward’s Night of the Long Knives: A sharp-eyed Kotaku reader spotted that IW CEO and Modern Warfare lead Vince Zampella’s LinkedIn page lists his involvement with the popular developer as having ended – as of March 2010.
This would likely make Zampella the second of the two senior IW employees mentioned in Activision’s SEC filing, who have been accused of “breaches of contract and insubordination.” Rumor has it – and again, this is only rumor, not fact, so don’t preach this like it’s gospel – that the two were seeking to negotiate publishing agreements with a publisher that wasn’t either Activision or Electronic Arts.
There must have been something serious going down at Infinity Ward yesterday: You don’t send bouncers to company premises lightly, especially when said company was the one behind making you your biggest game ever. Activision may be greedy, but the ones calling the shots aren’t stupid.
With this, it appears that the two most senior members of Infinity Ward – Zampella and CTO Jason West – are no longer with the company, whether having been terminated or having left of their own volition. What this means for Infinity Ward and the Call of Duty series remains to be seen.
