Prediction: Infinity Ward to Break Up with Activision

Prediction: Infinity Ward to Break Up with Activision

Before I start explaining the reasons behind this belief, let me say that this is pure speculation at this point. I also understand that most people will probably think that I am crazy on this subject but hear me out. If we trace back over the past year or so we can see signs that indicate IW may leave Activision.

First I will say that nobody expected Bungie to separate from Microsoft and return to their indie status. Yes, Microsoft has continued to publish games coming from Bungie but returning to their independent state allows them to continue their successful relationship with Microsoft yet have the freedom to work on other projects at the same time. Infinity Ward would greatly benefit from this same freedom. They might still publish future games through Activision but would be allowed more freedom with the games that they make.

Now let us take a look back to when Modern Warfare 2 was announced. Infinity Ward was clearly planning on removing the “Call of Duty” tag from the title altogether only to have it added back on shortly after advertising for the game began. This seems to be a clear decision from Activision to help market the game to the point where it has become the most successful launch of any game, movie, or book.

It was also recently revealed that Activision offered a very large budget that IW turned down for a smaller amount. Infinity Ward doesn’t want to be controlled by Activision with money and only accepted a budget that they seemed reasonable to make Modern Warfare 2. There has also been a history of Activision controlling IW. Call of Duty 2 could have very well been a modern warfare game until Activision told them to make a WWII era game instead as Activision believed that a modern warfare game wouldn’t sell.

It was also just recently reported that Activision has a new dev team working on the CoD franchise. To me this indicates that if IW isn’t leaving Activision then they are at least going to be working on a title that will be outside of the CoD series. Call of Duty has become Activision’s biggest money maker, the possibility of Infinity Ward going independent should have them worried.