Late last night, Activision fired the heads of their biggest money maker. Jason West and Vince Zampella of Infinity War have been released, with the mega-publisher citing “insubordination”

Indeed, its now well known in the industry that Infinity Ward was fighting for creative freedom, asking to do Modern Warfare back in 2004 (it finally came out in 2007), and negotiated that they be the sole developer Call of Duty (later settling for just Modern Warfare). Apparently lately Infinity Ward wouldn’t even speak to Activision reps, and were bitterly trying to develop a new game they would own. Kotaku has the details here.

But now Activision has new plans for Call Of Duty, handing it off to Sledgehammer Games, made up of former members of EA’s Redwood Shore team (makers of Dead Space).

Two weeks ago, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick stood in front of an industry crowd and lamented that they bought the Guitar Hero name but not the studio Harmonix that made the games. He freely admitted that was a mistake, and that the brand name with different people behind the wheel wouldn’t match that critical success.

It appears Activison hasn’t learned much. Not that the artists now responsible for Call of Duty and Guitar Hero aren’t capable of making great games, but the senseless shuffling and replacing of talent can’t make the new developers feel very confident about their long term job stability.

For those wishing to switch from COD, may I humbly suggest:

MattyCollector.com curbs your buying habits. Mass Effect 2 curbs your romance options. Are you enthusiastic about the shakeup at DC Entertainment? Is this tease shameless punnery?

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