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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] |