to certain ideas incidents or controversies . please help to create a more balanced presentation . discuss and resolve this issue before removing this message . march 2015 infinity ward type subsidiary industry computer and video games predecessor neversoft founded encino california u.s. may 2002 ; 14 years ago may 2002 1 founders grant collier jason west vince zampella headquarters woodland hills california u.s. key people dave stohl tina palacios candice capen jacob minkoff taylor kurosaki brian horton products call of duty series 2003 present parent activision 2003 present website www.infinityward.com infinity ward is an american video game developer . they developed the video game call of duty along with five other installments in the call of duty series . vince zampella grant collier and jason west established infinity ward in 2002 after working at 2015 inc. previously . 2 3 all of the 22 original team members of infinity ward came from the team that had worked on medal of honor allied assault while at 2015 inc. activision helped fund infinity ward in its early days buying up 30 percent of the company . the studio s first game world war ii shooter call of duty was released on the pc in 2003 . the day after the game was released activision snapped up the rest of infinity ward signing employees to long term contracts . infinity ward went on to make call of duty 2 call of duty 4 modern warfare call of duty modern warfare 2 call of duty modern warfare 3 call of duty ghosts and most recently announced call of duty infinite warfare . co founder collier left the company in early 2009 to join parent company activision . in 2010 west and zampella were fired by activision for breaches of contract and insubordination 4 5 they soon founded a game studio called respawn entertainment . on may 3 2014 neversoft was merged into infinity ward . 6 contents 1 history 1.1 2010 employee firings and departures 1.1.1 dismissal of senior employees 1.1.2 further departures 1.1.3 infinity ward fully reconstructed 1.1.4 lawsuits 1.1.4.1 west and zampella v. activision 1.1.4.2 infinity ward employee group v. activision 1.1.5 lawsuits against ea west and zampella 1.2 respawn entertainment 1.3 departure of robert bowling 2012 2 reception 3 game engines 4 games 5 see also 6 references 7 external links history edit infinity ward was founded in 2002 . 7 2010 employee firings and departures edit dismissal of senior employees edit on march 1 2010 activision amended its report with the securities and exchange commission to add notification that two senior employees of infinity ward were being fired due to breaches of contract and insubordination . this coincided with jason west infinity ward president game director co cco and cto and vince zampella ceo and co founder of infinity ward editing their profiles on the website linkedin to list infinity ward as a former employer as of march 2010 . reportedly a meeting between zampella west and activision staff occurred on march 1 after which neither zampella nor west were seen ; this was followed by the arrival of security guards at the studio . 8 9 it was later confirmed by activision that west and zampella had been dismissed and had been replaced on an interim basis by activision cto steve pearce and head of production steve ackrich . 10 activision ceo bobby kotick addressed infinity ward studio heads on march 2 2010 about zampella and west s dismissal . a second meeting was held with all of infinity ward s employees on hand . the outcomes of those meetings are currently unknown 11 but activision has explained that infinity ward is still central to the future of the call of duty franchise . activision has used a new studio sledgehammer games to create an action adventure installment of the call of duty franchise . however activision halted the production of the action adventure game which was reportedly 2 3 months into production and requested sledgehammer games to work side by side with infinity ward to make call of duty modern warfare 3 instead . further departures edit following west and zampella s firings nearly half of the remaining infinity ward employees resigned . throughout april and may 2010 46 employees among them lead designers and programmers who worked on modern warfare 2 abruptly left infinity ward . all of them have so far declined to comment on their reasons for leaving . 12 infinity ward fully reconstructed edit vivendi chairman and ceo jean bernard l vy stated that infinity ward got over their problems and are fully reconstructed and that activision is very happy with the result . the executive went on to say that there will be three studios working on the call of duty franchise including the newly formed studio sledgehammer games . 13 14 lawsuits edit west and zampella v. activision edit following the initial news of west and zampella s departure it was reported that infinity ward has not received royalties from the sales of call of duty modern warfare 2 and that the developer may have breached their contract with activision by holding meetings with other video game publishers including electronic arts . 11 15 this was revealed to be the reason behind the firings when west and zampella filed a lawsuit against activision on march 4 2010 over substantial royalty payments that activision failed to pay them in the weeks leading up to their firing . according to their attorney robert schwartz activision had hired lawyers to investigate west and zampella on charges of insubordination and breaches of contract in february which culminated in their dismissal . west and zampella s lawsuit was filed to force activision to compensate west and zampella for the unpaid royalties and to secure contractual rights over the modern warfare branch of the call of duty franchise among other things . 16 if their lawsuit is successful west and zampella could retain the power to halt the development and release of any future games and downloadable content in the modern warfare setting . 15 on april 9 2010 a countersuit was filed by activision stating their actions in firing zampella and west were justified calling the two self serving schemers . 17 zampella and west s attorney responded to the countersuit the same day saying the publisher s claims are false and outrageous . 18 the trial date for this case was revealed on july 9 2010 to be scheduled for may 23 2011 but was rescheduled for december 14 2011 . 19 it was then rescheduled again for march 29 2012 and further rescheduled for june 1 . 20 on march 31 2012 the two parties agreed to a confidential settlement . 21 the countersuit mentioned that call of duty modern warfare 3 was in development ; it was released on november 8 2011 . 22 infinity ward employee group v. activision edit on april 27 2010 38 current and former employees of infinity ward brought a lawsuit against activision . calling themselves the infinity ward employee group iweg the plaintiffs seek between 75 million and 125 million in compensatory damages from activision for unpaid bonuses for work on modern warfare 2 . the lawsuit alleges that activision withheld compensation from the plaintiffs in order to force them to stay with the studio and develop modern warfare 3 . 23 in addition the plaintiffs are also seeking between 75 million and 500 million in punitive damages . 24 the trial date for this case was revealed on july 9 2010 to be scheduled for may 23 2011 . 25 activision issued a check for 42 million although an infinity ward employee group lawyer bruce isaacs stated that although it is a meaningful payment it is only a small portion of what we are seeking in litigation . lawsuits against ea west and zampella edit activision amended its lawsuit against west and zampella to join electronic arts ea as a defendant on the grounds that ea began a conspiracy with west and zampella . 26 27 in the complaint activision accused electronic arts of intentionally interfering with contracts engaging in unfair competition and aiding and abetting breaches of fiduciary duty by west and zampella . the complaint also alleged that west and zampella refused to sign standard exit documents representing that they had returned all activision property including computer code . activision alleged west and zampella were motivated by envy and personal greed and intentionally released game trailers for modern warfare 2 the same day treyarch posted promotional videos for downloadable content for call of duty world at war . the article also showed a transcript of text message between west and an unnamed infinity ward employee . 28 in january 2011 the court was to rule on activision s petition to join ea as a defendant . the trial date between jason west and vince zampella vs. activision was set for june 14 2011 at the central civil west courthouse at 9 00 am case number sc107041 . 19 however several delays pushed the court hearing to the may 29 2012 . due to problems assembling a jury pool the date was pushed back even further to june 1 2012 with 22 days to reach a conclusion . the public trial did not go through and instead a private settlement was made . respawn entertainment edit main article respawn entertainment on april 12 2010 the la times reported that west and zampella were forming a new independent gaming studio known as respawn entertainment . they are seeking funding from ea through the ea partners program . west and zampella will incorporate the rights to all intellectual property produced by them in the future . 29 30 31 as of july 10 2010 38 of the 46 infinity ward employees who resigned from that studio following the firings of west and zampella revealed through their linkedin and facebook profiles that they had signed on with respawn entertainment . 12 32 respawn s first project titanfall was released in march 2014 . departure of robert bowling 2012 edit on march 27 2012 robert bowling issued the following statement on his twitter account today i resign from my position as creative strategist of call of duty as a lead of infinity ward and as an employee of activision . in response to this activision issued the following statement we sincerely thank robert for his many years of service . he s been a trusted and valued member of the infinity ward team . we wish him all the best on his decision to pursue future opportunities . 33 bowling allegedly left because he was unhappy with the slow evolution of the game as he responded with too much pew pew not enough new new to a question on the subject . 34 signs of disagreement between bowling and infinity ward arose in a live interview with machinima when he is quoted as saying the following i feel like we are in a fucking era where everyone is so focused on subscriber numbers and all that stuff that we need to get back to what i feel like we did so much better in the old days of just plain good will like stuff like the lan patch yeah it is lower priority but let s get it out the fucking door . let s just do it . this could be a contributing factor to his resignation . another factor could have been from the amount of harsh criticism the fans and players of modern warfare 3 gave him when certain aspects of the game occurred such as bugs and tweaks . the community was in such an uproar for treatment on modern warfare 3 and the players targeted bowling since he was the employee who was communicating with the public most of the time . 35 on june 1 2012 robert bowling announced the development of human