Vivendi: Treyarch Has 'Done Better' Than Infinity Ward, IW Finished Restructuring

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Call of Duty: Black Ops developer Treyarch has bested series creator Infinity Ward, IGN reports Activision parent company Vivendi declared last week. IW will get to fire back, though, as it has finished restructing after its major staffing losses this year.

"The Treyarch studio, which made this year's game, has done better than what the Infinity Ward studio could achieve a year ago," said CEO Jean-Bernard Levy at the Morgan Stanley TMT Conference on Friday. He's certainly right sales-wise, as Cod Blops broke the entertainment industry-wide launch day and five-day sales records set by Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 last year. Cold Blops sold-through over $650 million in five days after launching on November 9.

Levy also reveals that "We have reconstructed Infinity Ward," adding that the company is "very happy" with the result. IW suffered a mass exodus of staff after Activision fired co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella in March for allegedly trying to "steal" the studio and using its resources for personal benefit. Around thirty-five had left as of May, with a number joining West and Zampella at their new studio Respawn Entertainment.

Infinity Ward will head back down the Cod mine, joining Treyarch and fledging studio Sledgehammer Games. "We believe this set up of studios working on Call of Duty has demonstrated it can do very well," Levy opined. It's been rumoured, bizarrely, that Sledgehammer might be working on an instalment starring space marines.

From The Chatty
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    November 22, 2010 9:46 AM

    Better = selling more, what a joke.

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      November 22, 2010 10:07 AM

      Just curious, how else would you like Activision to measure it?

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        November 22, 2010 10:16 AM

        i cant wait to hear his answer

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        November 22, 2010 10:22 AM

        number of blood-spray particles theoretically achievable

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        November 22, 2010 10:41 AM

        Just curious, do you agree with better = better selling?
        Because if so you have missed out on all the best games.

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          November 22, 2010 11:03 AM

          But the heads of Activision aren't gamers. So decision makers are only able understand the bottom line of a game. That and their opinion of the crew behind developing games that perform well.

          At this point Activision can't have a well informed opinion of Treyarch without the people that helped form Treyarch's culture, therefore they are moving them under an organization/process that hasn't been gutted.

          And this PR sounds like a shot against the former management of Treyarch.

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            November 22, 2010 11:04 AM

            derp I meant Infinity Ward not Treyarch.

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          November 22, 2010 1:51 PM

          maybe the best in terms of a gamer's standpoint. but a business measures success by profits.

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          November 22, 2010 2:32 PM

          Activision or any publisher for that matter in any industry doesn't really care about how good a game/book/album/film is. At best they want a them to be good because good likely (but many times not always) means good sales. That's it. From Activision's standpoint better = selling more. You can't fault them for that. It's a business.

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        November 22, 2010 5:20 PM

        How about how the major gaming sites/magazines review it? That's got to count for something. And last I looked, MW2 was beating Black Ops in that category.

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          November 22, 2010 11:19 PM

          If they sell you shit, you buy the shit and the shit makes it to the number one selling game, then the shit turns into something better than all the other shit previously sold.

          Reviews and game scores do not count, not for Activision or any other industry behemoth (looking at you EA!).

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      November 22, 2010 10:47 AM

      Seriously this is so typical Activision talking... So just because they sold more Treyarch did a better job? They are looking for anything to just shut Infinity down or something... I still find the first modern warfare better then all of these cod games...

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        November 22, 2010 1:28 PM

        as far as Activision is concerned, they did do a better job. Money is what they understand, what drives the corp, and what they care about.

        Their definitions of "success" and "better" can be different from hours, not a big deal

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