Infinity Ward

**Infinity Ward** is a video game developer founded by former employees of 2015 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. In just the first 5 days of *Modern Warfare 3's* release, it grossed over US$775 million globally.

## 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, 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. As of June 2012, Activision settled all lawsuits involving former IW developers including West & Zampella.

After the disputes, a significant amount of employees left Infinity Ward, 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 has 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.

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

* **Steve Ackrich** - CEO
* **Dave Stohl** - Studio Head
* **Tina Palacios** - Production Coordinator
* **Candice Capen** - Production Coordinator
* **Richard Kriegler** - Art Director
* **Julian Luo** - Principal Designer
* **Jordan Hirsh** - Multiplayer Project Director
* **Tim McGrath** - Art Director
* **Simon Cournoyer** - Technical Director
* **Mike Denny** - Lead Game Designer
* **Paul Sandler** - Lead Level Designer
* **Nathan Silvers** - Game Designer
* **John Dobbie** - Lead Environment Artist
* **Velinda Pelayo** - Lead Environment Artist
* **Zach Volker** - Lead Animator
* **Jolyon Myers** - Senior Level Designer
* **Jacob Minkoff** - Design Director
* **Taylor Kurosaki** - Narrative Director
* **Carl Schnurr** - Chief Creative Officer
* **Sean Byers** - Lead Weapon Artist
* **Brian Horton -** Studio Art Director
* **David Mickner -** Multiplayer Designer
* **Joe Cecot -** Lead Multiplayer Designer
* **Dan Savage -** Lead Vehicle Artist
* **Steve Holmes -** Event Designer
* **Ashton Williams -** Community Manager
* **Jesse Snyder -** Gameplay Director
* **Brian Bright** - Project Director
* **Lee Ross** - Associate Project Director
* **Travis Ramon** - Production Coordinator
* **Scott Carpenter** - Lead Multiplayer Level Designer

 File:Iw team members.jpg
### Former employees

* **Alexander Roycewicz**- Level Designer
* **Andy Dohr** - Associate Producer
* **Robert "fourzerotwo" Bowling** - Creative Strategist
* **Brad Allen** - Senior Artist, Concept Artist
* **Brent McLeod** - Game Designer
* **Bruce Ferriz** - Senior Animator
* **Carly Gillis** - Executive Assistant
* **Chad Grenier** - Game Designer
* **Chad Barb** - Software Engineer
* **Charlie Wiederhold** - Game Designer
* **Chris Lambert** - Software Engineer
* **Christopher Cherubini** - Lead Environment Artist
* **Christopher Dionne** - Level Designer
* **Drew McCoy** - Systems Administrator
* **Earl Hammon** - Lead Software Engineer
* **Eric Pierce** - Lead Technical Animator/Artist
* **Francesco Gigliotti** - Lead Software Engineer
* **Geoffrey Smith** - Level Designer
* **Grant Collier** - President of Infinity Ward
* **Jake Keating** - Game Designer
* **Jason McCord** - Level Designer
* **Jason West** - CTO of Infinity Ward
* **Jeff Heath** **-** Environment Artist
* **Jeff Zaring** - Senior Level Designer
* **Jeremy Luyties** **-** Senior Game Designer
* **Jiesang Song** - Software Engineer
* **Joel Emslie** - Lead Character Artist, Concept Artist
* **Joel Gompert** **-** Software Engineer
* **John Harries** - Senior Software Engineer
* **John Sahas** - Senior Game Designer
* **John Haggerty** - Software Engineer
* **Jon Shiring** - Software Engineer
* **Keith "Ned" Bell** - Level Designer
* **Kristin Christopher** - Human Resources/Recruitment
* **Mackey McCandlish** - Lead Game Designer
* **Mario Perez** - Motion Capture Artist
* **Mark Grigsby** - Lead Animator, voiced SSgt. Griggs (*Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare*)
* **Mark Rubin** - Executive Producer
* **Mike Seal** - Quality Assurance Manager
* **Mohammad Alavi** - Game Designer
* **Paul Messerly** - Lead Animator
* **Preston Glenn** - Game Designer
* **Rayme C. Vinson** - Software Engineer
* **Robert Field** - Lead Software Engineer
* **Robert Gaines** - Lead Visual Effects Artist
* **Roger Abrahamsson** - Level Designer
* **Ryan Lastimosa** - Artist (Specialized in Weapons)
* **Sean Slayback** - Game Designer
* **Steve Fukuda** - Lead Game Designer, Writer, Additional Writer and Additional Voice Director
* **Todd Alderman** - Multiplayer Design Director
* **Vince Zampella** - CEO of Infinity Ward
* **Zied Rieke** - Lead Game Designer

## Games made

* *Call of Duty*
* *Call of Duty 2*
* *Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare* (ported by Treyarch on Wii with the name *Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex Edition*)
* *Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2*
* *Call of Duty: Classic*
* *Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3*
* *Call of Duty: Ghosts*
* *Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare*
* *Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered* (assisted and executive produced)

## Trivia

* In their games, most of the American characters' names are named after Infinity Ward staff. Also, many signs and buildings can have 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

1. ↑ http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-08-06-call-of-duty-dev-we-want-battlefield-4-to-succeed
2. ↑ http://uk.gamespot.com/news/modern-warfare-3-tops-1-billion-in-16-days-6347435
3. ↑ http://www.computerandvideogames.com/326941/activision-clarifies-record-modern-warfare-3-xbox-live-figures/
4. ↑ http://sententias.com/activision-vs-ea-400m-lawsuit-allowed-to-continue
5. ↑ http://xbox.incgamers.com/News/27444/fraud-charges-added-to-activision-vs-ea-suit
6. ↑ http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-activision-call-of-duty-lawsuit-settled-20120530,0,2012126.story
7. ↑ Iw Fix Word Censor Fail, retrieved 30th December 2009
8. ↑ 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

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