Comments on: Activision/Infinity Ward Studios Dustup: THIS COULD BE THE ONE

By: jaymoffitt

jaymoffitt — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:53:00 +0000

That explanation makes sense at to why it has been this way so far. And you’re right, there is NOTHING LIKE A MOVIE STAR. But times are changing slowly, and arguably, now, as many boys/girls grow up wishing to be a writer/artist/game-developer as wish to be a movie star. I’d put Steve Jobs or Bill Gates up as a master showman against anything Hollywood has put out this generation. The reason this case may be different is the drama, the incredibly high dollar amounts, and the visibility of the “break-up”. Hollywood has a great knack of being able to “hush-up the break-up”…. but it’s obviously not something that was done for Activision/Infinity Ward. In fact, the future of the “brand” Infinity Ward, and the ultimate destination of the other developers in their group will be a big power struggle that we’ll have to wait to find out as time elapses.

By: Stabs

Stabs — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:12:31 +0000

The games industry is unlikely to get quite the high profile coverage the media industry gets.

Let me give my pop psychology explanation.

People are wired to respond to other people as visual stimuli. If you see Julia Roberts acting a part, frantic in tears, desperate to rescue whatever then ecstatic, in tears, jubilant at having saved the day those are evoking responses in you that a team of remote office workers, programming in cubicles are not.

If you then read that Julia is undergoing an acrimonious divorce and there’s an issue of custody it matters to you way more than hearing about, say, the Infinity Ward sackings.

That’s why games industry people are inherently less interesting to the media than actors and TV stars. We see them, we relate to them, and only then we find them interesting to read about.

In fact Lara Croft has a better chance of touching people’s hearts than Jason West.

(This is very much a generalisation of course, personally I’ve trained myself to not care about celebrities unless I actually know them personally).

By: jaymoffitt

jaymoffitt — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:55:45 +0000

I stick by my guns on this one. Will agree with you on one part, though, they will not turn down the money. My thoughts are that you will begin to see a resounding cry among developers about the “takeover” of the franchise from Infinity Ward. And as a backlash you may see a “chuckle” among corporate types that, hey, when you sign up/sell out to a large multinational corporation, what were you expecting, autonomy? Somewhere there has to be a reasonable middle ground, but I don’t think this conflict will find one, at least not for months, maybe years. Thanks for reading, and I always look forward to your comments.

By: Brian 'Psychochild' Green

Brian 'Psychochild' Green — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:05:26 +0000

That’s an interesting perspective I hadn’t considered before. Given the amount of money involved, yeah, I’m sure this will make the financial publications.

I will diagree. I think this is about both money AND control. I can’t help but think that one major motivation for this is so Activision can pocket some of those earnings and not have to pay out royalties. Given the countersuit, we’re not talking about chump change for the royalties. They’re also restructuring the royalty agreements for the whole studio, too. Activision is looking to save a huge chunk of cash with this. Given how ugly the lawsuit is shaping up to be, there’s gotta be a financial upside here somewhere.

My thoughts.