The Fall of Infinity Ward – And the New Rise of the Personal Service Contract
Photo Credit: <div xmlns:cc=”http://creativecommons.org/ns#” about=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/-cavin-/747847877/in/photostream/”><a rel=”cc:attributionURL” href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/-cavin-/”>http://www.flickr.com/photos/-cavin-/</a> / <a rel=”license” href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>CC BY 2.0</a></div> (Flickr Creative Commons, attribution required) [You should visit the photo to read to read the narrative, no one was killed in this explosion].
What led to the destruction (total?) at Infinity Ward Studios?(read the other stories tagged Infinity Ward if you’re not familiar with the mass defections). I’m going to give a short history lesson… and instructions to big companies (as if they’re listening… HAHA) on how to gain allegiance.
It’s been detailed in many places, including Activision publications, how Infinity Ward was founded from the ashes of another War title. Those developers formed Infinity Ward. Activision became their biggest company user, and later sole supporter, and later owner. The last title became bigger than Avatar (in gross money terms) and then the bubble went “pop”.
Going back a little earlier into “tech history”, IBM, Xerox, Honeywell (look it up), these ground-breaking companies wore starched shirts, ties, and no one on the outside knew the programmers’ names. Later, names like Jobs, Gates, and then of course West/Zampanella came into being. It goes without saying the stock prices of Microsoft and Apple are dependent upon their leaders, so why would anyone think Infinity Ward would be different? Arguably, they lose their biggest asset from their biggest asset.
[The rest is stirctly commentary]Let me get into my “modest proposal”. Years ago it started, and runs currently, the “personal service contract” would be the preferred method by which big stars Sinatra, Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey, Katy Perry, etc… would be held to perform. It’s a personal obligation, binds personally (with penalties including restrictions on future work in the industry) and compensates fully and fairly. For example, no one ever seriously said, “Springsteen is gone, but the E Street band is still here, so we’re cool with it, K?” You knew the talent, and if you’re a multinational corporation YOU SHOULD KNOW that the lead programmer is the talent. Inspires the troops. Maybe is not (or has been for years) the best programmer…. but is THE COACH, the chief, the leader, and it’s undisputed. (Don’t believe it, just check the couple of dozen pink slips from Infinity Ward people over the last months… and don’t think Activision has not…. and you should look at this when all the court docs come out, and not just now… been throwing some serious money at these other departing IW developers.)
The day of strictly “buying a company” is over; recognize your talent, put them into lucrative personal service contracts, make it public, don’t just “buy the asset”…. BUY THE TALENT. Maybe I’m way off base, but the way all this has rolled out makes me think I am not. Welcome your comments, and as always if someone has REAL proof that it’s shaken out in a different way, I’d love to hear that.
Jay Moffitt is a Tennessee attorney. This blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only and does not consitute legal advice or create an attorney/client relationship. Jay Moffitt is not certified as a specialist in this area by Tennessee and Tennessee does not certify specialists in this practice area. All comments will be answered promptly and courteously as long as they are germane to the discussion and do not contain specific game names or incidents.
Tags: Activision, Contracts, Infinity Ward, Personal Service Contract, Studio, West and Zampanella
As I said before, this whole issue has to be about the money. No game company seriously believes they are just buying a company: they are buying the talent and the IP. I’ll bet that there were restrictions on how long the team had to stick around on the project, perhaps for some financial bonuses. That’s pretty common.
Ultimately, I suspect Activision believes they can make more money off of the IP without the existing team than with it. So, they’ve acted accordingly.
My take.
jaymoffitt Reply:
May 19th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Very good analysis. The same thought process goes into every industry; in the drug industry, I’ve heard the “active ingredients” in most drugs are miniscule, and with a markup of over 1000 percent for retail. But what they don’t talk about is the failures, the clinical trials that cost million and resulted in nothing, and the marketing that may work and may be wasted.
I believe West/Zampanella talked about the time restrictions in their reply, their allegations concerned a “slowdown” of payouts in order to encourage a longer stay at Activision. Activision (I’m paraphrasing here) was maintaining the speed and rate of payouts was normal/standard for the industry.
Whether Activision overplayed their hand by “killing the goose that laid the golden egg” is to be seen; perhaps West/Zampanella were overconfident by openly courting suitors while working/developing for Activision. I’m sure the argument has both sides, but from the actions of the other Infinity Ward developers it’s becoming pretty apparent where they feel their loyalty lies.