Ever since the firings of Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vincent Zampella, the backlash against Activision has been tremendous. First, we saw Infinity Ward members leave the studio. We then saw the formation of West and Zampella’s new studio, Respawn Entertainment. And most recently – a giant lawsuit filed by former and current Infinity Ward members, which could cost Activision a potential $625 million. Now, it seems that Activision is fed up, and an analyst is predicting the eventual outcome.
Mike Hickey, an analyst at Janco Partners, has said that Activision will likely close Infinity Ward, after the completion of the second Modern Warfare 2 map pack. Hickey also predicted that Modern Warfare 3 will be handled by two separate development studios.
“Continued defections from their Infinity Ward studio have created meaningful uncertainty around the future of their Call of Duty: Modern Warfare franchise. We expect Infinity Ward studio will be essentially closed after their next map pack release, with development work on Modern Warfare 3 spread between two studios not historically tied to the franchise.”
The first Modern Warfare 2 map pack, Stimulus Package, hits PlayStation Network on May 4th for North America, followed by a May 5th release for PAL regions.
[Source]
