Infinity Ward is a video game developer founded by former employees of "2015 Inc" in Encino, California that founded and developed many of the games in the Call of Duty series. Activision has owned Infinity Ward since 2003. Infinity Ward originally consisted of members of 2015 Inc., which developed Medal of Honor: Allied Assault.
Reception
Infinity Ward's first game, Call of Duty, won over 80 Game of the Year awards and 47 Editor's Choice Awards. The sequel, Call of Duty 2 for the Xbox 360 and PC, sold more than one million copies in the United States of America alone and was the first Xbox 360 game to sell 1 million copies in the United States, making it the best selling Xbox 360 game until Gears of War. Call of Duty 3 was not made by Infinity Ward and did not fare nearly as well as the previous two. Infinity Ward released Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare with huge success, selling over 11 million copies, and was hailed as one of the best games of the year receiving many 10/10 awards like its predecessor Call of Duty 2. Call of Duty: World at War, again, was not produced by Infinity Ward. The third most recent Infinity Ward installment, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, was a bigger hit, despite having some controversial material such as "No Russian". In 2011, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 broke the record for the fastest time to gather US$1 billion in revenue, at 16 days, beating Avatar, which earned US$1 billion in 17 days.[2] In just the first five days of the release of Modern Warfare 3, it grossed over US$775 million globally.[3]
Call of Duty games
 Call of Duty (Oct. 2003) |
 Call of Duty 2 (Oct. 2005) |
 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Nov. 2007) |
 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Nov. 2009) |
Call of Duty: Classic (Dec. 2009) |
 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Nov. 2011) |
 Call of Duty: Ghosts (Nov. 2013) |
 Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (Nov. 2016) |
 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered (Nov. 2016) (assisted and executive produced)[4] |
Lawsuit
Two former employees of Infinity Ward, Jason West and Vince Zampella, were locked up in a lawsuit with Activision over unsettled royalties, which they did not receive for the sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Activision also sued West and Zampella along with Electronic Arts for $400 million,[5] for certain conspiracies which aimed to detriment Modern Warfare 2. West and Zampella were accused of helping EA with the development of rival game Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which would count as a breach of their contracts with Activision. Eventually, West and Zampella added fraud charges against Activision in their counterlawsuit.[6] As of June 2012, Activision settled all lawsuits involving former IW developers including West and Zampella.[7]
After the disputes, a significant amount of employees left Infinity Ward, Mike Seal and Carly Gillis left before the firings of West and Zampella, with some consequently joining Respawn Entertainment, a game company created by West and Zampella.
Controversy
- For more information, see Wikipedia's article on the controversies surrounding Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
Infinity Ward was the focus of much controversy before Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was officially released, when a video showing the mission, "No Russian", was released in which the player had the option to kill civilians as an undercover CIA agent posing as a terrorist. The player was, however, given an option to skip the level without being penalized in any term of progress or achievements/trophies.
Infinity Ward was also criticized for certain decisions announced further before the game was leaked, when it was revealed that they had removed support for dedicated servers for the PC version of the game, instead opting to use a matchmaking system similar to the console versions of the games, known as IWNet. This denied PC gamers from being able to mod the game easily, as well as limiting the amount of players in a match. It was also revealed that the developer console and leaning had also been removed.
A user on the Infinity Ward forums discovered that when one attempted to write the words "cunt" or "bitch", it would be censored and replaced with the word "girl", drawing complaints from gamers that this was "sexist". Robert Bowling, Infinity Ward's creative strategist, described it as a "word censor fail", and corrected the mistake the very next day.[8]
Infinity Ward was also accused of being homophobic, when a viral video about grenade spamming in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was uploaded on YouTube. The video called grenade spammers "pussies" and urged players to "Fight Against Grenade Spam", the acronym being "F.A.G.S.".
Major employees
Current Employees
- Steve Ackrich - CEO
- Brian Bright - Project Director
- Sean Byers - Lead Weapon Artist
- Candice Capen - Production Coordinator
- Scott Carpenter - Lead Multiplayer Level Designer
- Joe Cecot - Lead Multiplayer Designer
- Simon Cournoyer - Technical Director
- Madison Cromwell - Associate Producer
- Mike Denny - Lead Game Designer
- John Dobbie - Lead Environment Artist
- Joshua Dunham - Senior Environment Artist
- Joel Emslie - Studio Art Director
- Mark Grigsby - Animation Director, voiced SSgt. Griggs (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare)
- Jordan Hirsh - Multiplayer Project Director
- Steve Holmes - Event Designer
- Taylor Kurosaki - Narrative Director
- Julian Luo - Principal Designer
- Dom McCarthy - Producer
- Tim McGrath - Art Director
- David Mickner - Multiplayer Designer
- Jacob Minkoff - Design Director
- John Mundy - Senior Game Designer
- Jolyon Myers - Senior Level Designer
- Travis Ramon - Production Coordinator
- Velinda Reyes - Lead Environment Artist
- Lee Ross - Associate Project Director
- Alexander Roycewicz - Designer
- Paul Sandler - Lead Level Designer
- Ranon Sarono - Senior Animator
- Dan Savage - Lead Vehicle Artist
- Carl Schnurr - Chief Creative Officer
- Nathan Silvers - Game Designer
- Geoffrey Smith - Multiplayer Design Director
- Dave Stohl - Studio Head
- Zach Volker - Lead Animator
- Ashton Williams - Community Manager
Infinity Ward's employees during the post-Modern Warfare 2 period.
Former employees
Before Modern Warfare 2
- Benjamin Bastian - Software Engineer
- Lacey Bronson - Executive Assistant
- Richard Cheek - Technical Animator
- Kevin Chen - Artist
- Hyun Jin Cho - Software Engineer
- James Chung - Artist
- Grant Collier - President of Infinity Ward
- Ursula Escher - Animator
- Brian Gilman - Level Designer
- Carl Glave - Software Engineer
- Jack Grillo - Audio
- Chris Hassell - Artist
- Rodney Houle - Level Designer
- Eric Johnsen - Associate Producer
- Paul Jury - Artist
- Brian Langevin - Software Engineer
- Patrick Lister - Associate Producer
- Herbert Lowis - Artist
- Steve Massey - Game Designer
- Sarah Michael - Software Engineer
- Michael Nichols - Senior Recruiter
- Bryan Pearson - Software Engineer
- Eric Riley - Producer
- Linda Rosemeier - Audio
- Emily Rule - Animator
- Chuck Russom - Audio
- Nicole Scates - Administrative Assistant
- Alexander Sharrigan - Information Technology
- Dan Smith - Associate Producer
- Jiwon Son - Artist
- Soompoom Tangchupong - Artist
- Justin Thomas - Lead Artist
- Ken Turner - Development Director
- Harry Walton - Animator
After Modern Warfare 2
The people who left before the firings of West and Zampella
- Carly Gillis - Executive Assistant
- Mike Seal - Quality Assurance Manager
The people who were fired in March 2, 2010
- Vince Zampella - CEO of Infinity Ward
- Jason West - CTO of Infinity Ward
The people who resigned between April-May 2010
- Roger Abrahamsson - Level Designer
- Mohammad Alavi - Game Designer
- Todd Alderman - Multiplayer Design Director
- Brad Allen - Senior Artist, Concept Artist
- Richard Baker - Lead Software Engineer
- Chad Barb - Software Engineer
- Keith "Ned" Bell - Level Designer
- Christopher Cherubini - Lead Environment Artist
- William Cho - Artist
- Kristin Christopher - Human Resources/Recruitment
- Jon Davis - Software Engineer
- Christopher Dionne - Level Designer
- Bruce Ferriz - Senior Animator
- Robert Field - Lead Software Engineer
- Steve Fukuda - Lead Game Designer, Writer, Additional Writer and Additional Voice Director
- Robert Gaines - Lead Visual Effects Artist
- Francesco Gigliotti - Lead Software Engineer
- Preston Glenn - Game Designer
- Joel Gompert - Software Engineer
- Chad Grenier - Game Designer
- John Haggerty - Software Engineer
- Earl Hammon - Lead Software Engineer
- Cathie Ichige - Executive Assistant
- Jake Keating - Game Designer
- Chris Lambert - Software Engineer
- Ryan Lastimosa - Artist (specialized in weapons)
- Mackey McCandlish - Lead Game Designer
- Jason McCord - Level Designer
- Drew McCoy - Systems Administrator
- Brent McLeod - Game Designer
- Paul Messerly - Lead Animator
- Mario Perez - Motion Capture Artist
- Zied Rieke - Lead Game Designer
- Jon Shiring - Software Engineer
- Jiesang Song - Software Engineer
- Sean Slayback - Game Designer
- Richard N. Smith - Artist
- Todd Sue - Artist
- Rayme C. Vinson - Software Engineer
- Charlie Wiederhold - Game Designer
Before/After Modern Warfare 3
- Gennaday Babinchenko - Environmental Artist
- Alessandro Bartolucci - Software Engineer
- Peter Blumel - Associate Producer
- Robert "fourzerotwo" Bowling - Creative Strategist
- Andy Dohr - Associate Producer
- Aaron Eady - Game Programmer
- Derric Eady - Artist
- Chance Glasco - Animator
- John Harries - Senior Software Engineer
- Jeff Heath - Environment Artist
- Brian Horton - Studio Art Director
- Neel Kar - Technical Animator
- Richard Kriegler - Art Director
- Bryan Kuhn - Software Engineer
- Chris Lai - Information Systems Analyst
- Cheng Lor - Technical Animator
- Jeremy Luyties - Senior Game Designer
- Timothy McGrath - Art Director
- Sami Onur - Artist
- Tina Palacios - Production Coordinator
- Eric Pierce - Lead Technical Animator/Artist
- Carlos Pineda - Game Designer
- Mark Rubin - Executive Producer
- John Sahas - Senior Game Designer
- Jesse Snyder - Gameplay Director
- Theerapol Srisuphan - Artist
- Lisa Stone - Receptionist
- Janice Turner - Office Manager
- Andrew Wang - Software Engineer
- Sarah Wang - Artist
- John Wasilczyk - Associate Producer
- Lei Yang - Animator
- Jeff Zaring - Senior Level Designer
Former and current Quality Assurance Testers
- Athena Abdo
- Cory Aldridge
- Bryan Anker
- Adrienne Arrasmith
- Andrew Baxter
- Estevan Becerra
- Mary Benitez
- Scott Bergin
- Chelsy Berry
- Jason Boles
- Valentin Cain
- Reilly Campbell
- Candice Capen
- Brian Carl
- Alex Carracino
- Terran Casey
- Shamen'e Childress
- William Cho
- Clifton Cline
- Kyle Collier
- Zack Cooper
- Jerry Cortes
- Vincent Couch
- David De La Torre
- Dimitri Del Castillo
- Brian Dionne
- Keith Doran
- Paco Erskine
- Veronica Flint
- Richard Garcia
- Jemuel Garnett
- Oliver George
- Daniel Germann
- Kristopher Green
- James Gutierrez
- Ed Harmer
- Justin Harris
- Evan Hatch
- Clive Hawkins
- Chris Hermans
- Ronald Hines
- Meghan House
- Paul Hunt
- Anthony Interrante
- Alex Jacobson
- Winyan James
- Dagmar Jantzen
- Matthew Jones
- Brant Kortman
- Tan La
- Matthew Lackowski
- Stephanie Langwell
- Rene Lara
- Keith Leopold
- Eric Liffer
- Steve Louis
- Scott Matloff
- Gavin McCandlish
- Patrick McGinnis
- Alexander Mejia
- Robert Mercado
- Matthew Mercer
- Jessica Miller
- Michael Miller
- Adrian Montoya
- Maria Morales
- Christian Murillo
- Obed Navas
- Gavin Niebel
- Keith Norwood
- Peter Nuoffer
- David Oberlin
- Benjamin O'Brien
- Norman Ovando
- Kevin Pai
- Romulo Pedroza
- Ruy Pena
- Michael Penrod
- Thaddeus Phillips
- Juan Ramirez
- Travis Ramon
- Robert Riter
- Michael Robinson
- Lindsey Root
- Brian Roycewicz
- Anthony Rubin
- Andrew Rumer
- Mark Ruzicka
- Tristen Sakurada
- Enrique Sanchez
- Adrian Sandoval
- Georgina Schaller
- David Schultz
- Justin Schwartz
- Mike Seal
- Alexander Sharrigan
- Chris Shepherd
- Ann Smith
- Drew Surmenian
- Keane Tanyoue
- John Theodore
- Jason Tom
- Patrick Tomsen
- Vaughn Vartanian
- Max Vo
- Robert Wai
- Krystle Wallis
- Daniel Wapner
- Irma Ward
- James Waters
- Alex Weldon
- Brandon Willis
Videos
Trivia
- In their games, most of the American characters' names are named after Infinity Ward staff. Many signs and buildings can be seen with the names of employees on them as well.
- The Infinity Ward logo is an obtainable emblem for the player's multiplayer callsign in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. It is also available as an accessory in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.
- The Infinity Ward logo "atom" and the IW acronym are referenced in their games as mostly obscure easter eggs.
External links
- Infinity Ward's Official Website
- Infinity Ward on Wikipedia
- Who remains at Infinity Ward on Cynical Smirk
References
- ↑ http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-08-06-call-of-duty-dev-we-want-battlefield-4-to-succeed
- ↑ http://uk.gamespot.com/news/modern-warfare-3-tops-1-billion-in-16-days-6347435
- ↑ http://www.computerandvideogames.com/326941/activision-clarifies-record-modern-warfare-3-xbox-live-figures/
- ↑ https://support.activision.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/Call-of-Duty-Modern-Warfare-Remastered-FAQ/?l=en_US&c=Game_Title%3ACall_of_Duty_Modern_Warfare_Remastered&fs=Search&pn=1
- ↑ http://sententias.com/activision-vs-ea-400m-lawsuit-allowed-to-continue
- ↑ http://xbox.incgamers.com/News/27444/fraud-charges-added-to-activision-vs-ea-suit
- ↑ http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-activision-call-of-duty-lawsuit-settled-20120530,0,2012126.story
- ↑ Iw Fix Word Censor Fail, retrieved 30th December 2009
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