Hier mal der neuste Stand :
Many people at IW have quit recently, before they received bonuses from Activision for their work on Modern Warfare 2. Those bonuses will be redistributed to everybody who stayed with the studio.
Much has happened since Jason West, former president of Infinity Ward and director of smash hit Modern Warfare 2, announced his unemployment status on Facebook on March 1st. West and Infinity Ward CEO Vince Zampella were fired by Activision for alleged breach of contract and insubordination, they've formed a new studio with Electronic Arts, they've sued Activision for allegedly keeping all the MW2 royalties, and they've been countersued for allegedly attempting to steal company secrets. In the past few weeks, thirteen others have left Infinity Ward.
The newest development brings us back to Facebook, where an interesting discussion is happening in the group Gamers Against Bobby Kotick & Activision. Dan Amrich, the community site manager for Activision, recently joined the Activision hate group to initiate a friendly dialogue and see if they couldn't understand each other. All week Amrich has been receiving complaints about Activision releasing too many Guitar Hero games in 2009, and a few members have asked what was happening with the Modern Warfare 2 bonuses. Amrich replied with this post:
"Vince and Jason had very large bonuses; those bonuses are being redistributed to everybody else, to the people who did not allegedly attempt to steal company secrets. (Please see Activision's countersuit for details about Vince and Jason's surreptitious attempts to photocopy and scan sensitive documents.) Activision is not pocketing that bonus money; it's still going to the people who work at IW. But you have to work at IW to get it, see?
I don't want to see talented people screwed out of a paycheck any more than you do."
While this confirms that Activision is still paying the Modern Warfare 2 bonuses to Infinity Ward, it also confirms that they waited until they'd announced three sequels. Amrich also responded to recent comments that the studio was dead:
IW still exists; obviously its identity and company culture are going to go through huge changes in the coming months and years. But can we agree that change also means opportunity? When stuff happens and a situation changes, we all have the same core decision: Stay the course and reinvent, or move on to something else. The people who stick at IW will have to reinvent the studio, but it may well be that some of these people who cut their teeth on MW and MW2 are now ready to step up with their own ideas. AND they are getting a bigger chunk of the bonus money than they expected for what they already did.
We'll have to wait until this new Infinity Ward releases Modern Warfare 3 in 2011 to see if the wildly successful franchise can survive losing fifteen members of its dev-team. Amrich is right though; the people who stayed at the company are getting the opportunity to take over one of gaming's biggest franchises. And some pretty big bonuses.
Quelle :
http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=7923
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