There's been major events going down at Activision today. Workers were left feeling uneasy this morning when the 2 studio heads of Infinity Ward, Jason West and Vince Zampella went to meet with Activision and hadn't been seen since.
It later arose that Jason West had been sacked by Activision which was confirmed by his LinkedIn (a website for business networking) profile, which listed his job at Infinity Ward as 'past'. Sources seemed to imply that there had been some pressure for change coming from Activision and Infinity Ward had been resisting. It later arose in an Activision security report that there had been an 'internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees'.
To top it all off, this afternoon West's fellow studio head Vince Zampella also changed his LinkedIn profile, listing his employment status with Infinity Ward as TBD (to be decided).
tl;dr: Looks like Activision tried to make Infinity Ward change something and the 2 studio heads refused and got laid off. I'll be keeping an eye on events as they unfold.
Not that this really comes as a shock to anyone but the GTX 470 and 480 are set to be expensive and indeed rare at first.
Although the planned launch for the new cards is March 26, second-tier manufacturers won't be producing and shipping the new cards until May. However, XFX and PNY are 2 of the first-tier companies that will be shipping the cards from launch and are already accepting pre-orders for the new tech.
Prices are predicted to be set at $679.99 for the 480 and $499.99 for the 470.
Anyone hoping for a price drop in ATI DX11 cards to compensate for the release of Nvidia's new cards are most likely to be disappointed. Since Nvidia's products will be higher in price already, its predicted that there won't be a price war between the two manufacturers until after May.
Guess what guys, its going to be set in 'Nam! Maybe Tom Slick will be there!
Quote:A Hollywood casting call seems to have outed details about Call Of Duty 7 - revealing names of characters and news of the title's Vietnam setting.
The ad mentions a Call of Duty-related "voice over/motion capture" for an Activision "video game" - and describes lead character Frank Barnes as being part of an elite Vietnam unit.
VG247 reports that Barnes is part of an elite Vietnam unit: the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam - Studies and Observations Group (SOG).
SOG was a real-life special operations unit which conducted covert unconventional warfare operations prior to and during the Vietnam War.
Barnes is described as "a fiercely patriotic veteran of WW2... A solid leader, possessed with an excellent ability to assess and respond to any situation quickly and decisively".
Other characters include Joseph Lewis, a "very physically fit" black man in his 20s; Jason Hudson, a white man in his 30s with "over 15 years of military experience, making him an excellent tactician and mission co-coordinator"; and Kristina Ivanova, a Russian-born martial arts expert and CIA operative who's "calm to the point of being cold and detached".
Are you pleased with the Vietnam setting? Or would you have preferred more Modern Warfare/WWII stuff? I think its going to be interesting how IW portray the outcome, since its a bit of a sensitive subject that could affect sales in the US and elsewhere. In the Modern Warfare and earlier CoD games set in WWII, we saw the Allies/US Army and SAS ('the good guys') win. As we all know, the Vietnam War was a different kettle of fish. I'm intrigued to see IW's take on the Vietnam War.
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