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]