Infinity Ward, Inc. is an American video game developer. They developed the video game Call of Duty, along with seven 💰 other installments in the Call of Duty series. Vince Zampella, Grant Collier, and Jason West established Infinity Ward in 2002 💰 after working at 2024, Inc. previously.[1][2] 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 2024, Inc. Activision helped fund Infinity Ward in its 💰 early days, buying up 30 percent of the company, before eventually fully acquiring them.[3] 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 💰 bought 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, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, the Modern Warfare reboot, and its sequel.
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]
History [ edit ]
Infinity Ward was founded as an Activision division by Grant Collier, Jason West, and Vince Zampella in 💰 2002.[7][3] The studio was formed by several members of 2024 Games, LLC., the studio that developed the successful Medal of 💰 Honor: Allied Assault for Electronic Arts (EA) in 2002. Dissatisfied with the current contract they had under EA, Collier, West, 💰 and Zampella engaged with Activision to help establish Infinity Ward, which became one of the primary studios within Activision for 💰 the competing Call of Duty series.[8] Initially, Activision provided Infinity Ward US$1.5 million for 30% stake in the company to 💰 start development on the first game Call of Duty, acquiring full ownership after the title was successfully launched in 2003.[9] 💰 During this period, the studio was about 25 employees including many who followed Collier, West, and Zampella from 2024. Activision 💰 allowed Infinity Ward a great deal of freedom in how it developed its titles.[9]
Shortly after this release, Microsoft contacted Activision 💰 to seek a Call of Duty title as a launch title for the upcoming Xbox 360 console.[9] Infinity Ward agreed 💰 to prepare Call of Duty 2 for release in the last quarter of 2005. Collier said the request would help 💰 them lose the stigma of being only a personal computer developer, and so to make sure the console version was 💰 on parity, they tripled their staff to about 75 employees.[9] Much of the focus of Infinity Ward's development was improving 💰 its game engine to include realistic special effects, such as smoke grenades to hinder sight, or bullets piercing through weak 💰 materials.[9] Call of Duty 2 was a major success, having an 85% attach rate to new Xbox 360 console sales, 💰 and selling 1.4 million units its first year.[9] At this point, Activision brought in Treyarch, one of their internal studios, 💰 to help develop additional Call of Duty games, with Infinity Ward spending the time and effort to improve the game's 💰 engine for one game, and Treyarch using the updated engine to create a new title.[9] Treyarch released the next sequel 💰 Call of Duty 3 while Infinity Ward itself developed Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which instead of taking place 💰 during World War II, was set in a contemporary period with a fictional conflict between superpowers.[9] At the time of 💰 Modern Warfare's release, Infinity Ward had more than 100 employees.[9]
