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 [...]

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New lawsuits update

Infinity Ward Developers sue Activision (for unpaid royalties)
From Lawsuits and Settlements Web site (talking about the California state law factor) ; and story from the Vancouver Sun.
A slightly different take…The Lawsuit and Public Relations, from Gamasutra.  Other lawsuits, after the jump….

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Developer Dischord at “The Big A”…. a historical fairy tale

Once upon a time the pre-eminent development firm for computer games had several top developers.
These developers were responsible for a goodly portion of the market for this top firm.
And the developers were looking at the dollars they were making, and what the company was making… and weren’t happy.
It did not end well…. for any reconciliation.
The [...]

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Gaming Cases Updates

Links to Activision vs. West/Zampanella (IW) case – my original post HERE:  more links after the jump

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Monday miscellaneous

A couple of very important links that don’t fill up enough for a complete post.
Viewing Virtual Property Law Through the Lens of Innovation:  cite as “Vacca, Ryan G., Viewing Virtual Property Ownership Through the Lens of Innovation. Tennessee Law Review, Vol. 76, p. 33, 2008. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1100302”
Other less authoritative, but still noteworthy posts [...]

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

Yes, the one that hits the mainstream media.  Allegedly security called, developers dismissed from their office, power struggles, money struggles, the biggest one-shot in gaming history (bigger than movie Avatar).  This could be “THE ONE” that the mainstream media reports on as if it were a movie star or a rock star.  Anonymity goodbye?  More [...]

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Transparency in Video Games

“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain”. You know what movie that is from, right?
There is a very interesting article on The reticule that talks about this concept. Personally, I loved the idea that “The main tenet of their design is not playability but profit and, while this is true of [...]

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