Plenty of news has come out of the Infinity Ward office over the past few months, but the drama is only just beginning. Job postings available at Gamastura have revealed that Infinity Ward is attempting to save face and continue development of Modern Warfare 3, despite the loss of a massive senior staff base. 6 new job postings are available, and judging by the number of employees that have either left completely or moved to Respawn, that number is sure to rise in the coming weeks.
I’m interested to see how development on the next Modern Warfare will play out with the loss of critical team members (and lots of them!) and how this will affect the quality of the final product. Will the newly patched-up dev team deliver on what has become the highest of expectations from this triple-A brand?
If you work in a creative field or are on a team of any sort, it’s not surprising news that the camaraderie of working long, hard hours towards a single goal makes people passionate about what they do. And when you’re passionate about what you do, you produce amazing work. Jason West and Vincent Zampella were two such passionate people, and they led an entire team to greatness and success with Modern Warfare 2.
The subsequent drama that occured with Activision has broken the team spirit and lowered company morale, while also creating a negative reputation amongst some groups of hardcore gamers. It’s hard to see, under these conditions, how the team will be able to produce work of the same calibre as in the past. Developers aren’t machines, they’re people. Working condition suffers, and the product suffers. It’s that simple.
I won’t be surprised if there’s a quality difference in the next product that the Ward produces that’s discernible to the watchful gamer’s eye. What do you think?
