The ink has hardly had time to dry on the contract between ex-Infinity Ward bosses West and Zampella before Electronic Arts have started firing all guns towards Activision. EA Partners boss David DeMartini has said,
“Who knows what’s going to happen with Infinity Ward now that they’ve decided to blow up the creative guys that run the place.”
He then continued with some rather scathing remarks for poor old Treyarch.
“The media has identified the non-Infinity Ward years as the B-team years, and just kind of picking that up from the media and looking at the review scores, they tend to drop down anywhere from 7-10 points in a non-Infinity Ward year.”
The press release from Respawn also makes clear that there is no love for Activision:
“Now that the team is in control of the games and brands, we can ensure that the fans are treated as well as they deserve.’”
Obviously a direct reference to Activision interfering on Modern Warfare. In the same press release, Frank Gibeau, President of the EA Games Label, says:
“At EA, we’re honoured to be their partners and to give them the support they need to hire a team and return to making incredible games.”
This implies that Activision did not give the support required. A hearing has been set for May for the first round of legalities including who ‘owns’ the Modern Warfare brand. Imagine how much of a kick in the wallet it would be if EA snatched the biggest gaming brand in history from Activision.
Activision are already rather narked claiming that West & Zampella disrupted pre-production of Modern Warfare 3, something the pair have already responded to the claim as being “false and outrageous.”
Source: VG247
