Following the rumored allegations of “insubordination” and “breaches of conduct” by the departing co-founders of Infinity Ward, Activison has announced its plans for the future of the Call of Duty franchise.

From what’s already known, this year’s Call of Duty is being helmed by Call of Duty 3 and World at War veterans, Treyarch and not to much surprise, 2011 will also see the release of another Call of Duty video game. However, the series will be extending into the “action-adventure” genre that is being crafted by the newly formed Sledgehammer Games – headed by ex-Visceral developers Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey – that is also expected for release in 2011.

Activison has somewhat addressed the future of the franchise which includes putting the Call of Duty name under a singular business unit, intending to follow the model established by Blizzard Entertainment for their own intellectual properties. Keeping in line with this, the company has announced plans to bring Call of Duty to “new geographies, new genres and with new digital business models.” This is not a surprise given the fact that Activison has publicly stated plans for a subscription based Call of Duty and talks with partners of entering the Asian market, where its one of the fastest growing regions for online multiplayer games, is an example of their efforts.

As for Infinity Ward, Activison has stated that the developer remains “central to Call of Duty’s future.” IW is still in development for the first two downloadable map packs for Modern Warfare 2 and has stated that Steve Pearce (Activision Publishing CTO) and Steve Ackrick (Activison Publishing Head of Production) have temporarily taken charge of the studio.

Story first broken by G4’s Patrick Klepek, two key employees from Infinity Ward in an unseemingly bizzare turn of events. Evidence is reported by an SEC Filing by publisher Activision today regarding a human resources investigation into “breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward.”

One of these employees includes Infinity Ward’s CTO Jason West and the other rumored to be Vince Zampella. Infinity Ward Community Manager Robert Bowling has vaguely addressed the issue on his Twitter account by stating that he has “no info” on the matter at this time.

A screenshot has previously surfaced at Kotaku of Infinity Ward CTO Jason West’s Facebook page with the status update “”Jason West is drinking. Also, unemployed.” His Linkedin profile has been updated to reflect the following change in employment:

“President/Game Director/CCO/CTO Infinity Ward
January 2001 – March 2010 (9 years 3 months)”

Earlier in the evening, Klepek posted that a source close to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s developer has informed that a bunch of security guards have showed up at the studio offices unannounced and were unwilling to disclose any information why they were there. Infinity Ward’s studio heads Jason West and Vincent Zampella were reportedly meeting at Activision today and has not been seen since.

The atmosphere at the studio offices are described as “tense,” regarding the relationship between Infinity Ward and its publisher Activision. People are “freaked out” and “confused.” One source states, “We just wanna make our games.”

OPINION
In recollecting these distressing accounts of events, it seems of concidence to note Activision CEO Bobby Kotick’s choice of words of how he views the video games business, in promoting an atmosphere of “skepticism, pessimism, and fear and keeping people focused on the deep depression.” This is an example of corporate restructuring at its core. Activision has constantly shown their hand in developers affairs and by removing the Infinity Ward studio heads, effectively demonstrates the brutal nature of the business. Activision sent security guards as a cautionary measure for such an occasion like this to keep productivity afloat, but it certainly does not bode well for the job environment at all – considering that recent events have cited, for example, protest by former employees to the terrible working conditions at Rockstar Games San Diego.

Sorry about the lack of NewsVine yesterday, during the time I had free I couldn’t access the site for some unknown reason. But today, no such problem so here’s the day today in the world of gaming.

Red Steel 2 Scheduled for March 23 Release

Ubisoft has stealthly dated Red Steel 2 for March 23, according to the publisher’s site. We’re hoping they’ve got all the kinks worked out with the extra delay time for its release.

Dishwasher Dev Announces Charlie Murder for XBL Indie Games

From the maker of The Dishwasher and I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1N IT!!!1 comes another ingenious creation. Check out the Facebook page for a look at the characters and the gameplay which looks to be an arcade beat-em-up with punk rockers and zombies. The developer says there will be a good chance the game will be in attendance for PAX East and is currently scheduled for a March 2010 release.

Bobby Kotick: Our Spider-Man Games Have Sucked for the Last Five Years

Our favorite CEO Bobby Kotick has finally admitted what gamers have known for years, Spider-Man games suck. Kotick remarked in an issue of Game Informer that the friendly neighborhood hero hasn’t been given its dues in the past gaming installments by pointing out that “they were poorly rated because they were bad games.” Who knew poor quality is directly responsible for low review scores?

Crackdown 2 Demo Coming

Ruffian Games has plans to release a demo of the sequel to the open-world sandbox game, Crackdown 2, before the game hits retail shelves. However, no release date or timeframe was given for the demo’s release nor for the full game. Oh why do you tease us so. And a shameless plug that well be covering it on our Appetizer series when it comes out.

ESPN Sports Streaming Coming to Xbox 360?

Microsoft has a knack to use the Xbox dashboard as a way to “advertise” its featured applications such as Twitter, Facebook, Netflix for those who bother to use it as a means of convenience. Now sports fanatics (not me) can look forward to the possibility of having your 360 updated with the latest happenings in the wide world of curling. Maybe they can also tell us the difference between football and football. However those in the UK can already get access to ESPN via the Sky Player.

The MonsterVine staff converge for this year’s biggest game, Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Will, Marcos, and Craig discuss selected missions from the singleplayer component of the game. We tackle the ‘Cliffhanger’ mission in an attempt to pick up the storyline from the previous Modern Warfare. In addition, we talk about the highly controversial ‘No Russian’ mission with a tone of gravitas.

Cliffhanger

No Russian

To celebrate the upcoming release for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 we decided to do something a little special. You see I can’t get enough of Bobby Kotick. Each time I see his name in a headline I get giddy as a girl who just got a pony thinking what he’s done next.

Now Zack and I have been writing up a few parody songs dealing with various subjects in the gaming news but I just had to take a crack at Kotick. I took the song ‘Back Then’ by Mike Jones, with a little help from Zack, and we made the Kotick Rap. We just have the lyrics to give you at the moment but I promise full audio will come soon.

[Chorus]
“Back then they didn’t know me, now I’m hot they see me trollin’”
” Back then they didn’t know me, now I’m hot they see me trollin’- I SAID”
“Back Back then they didn’t know me, now I’m hot they see me trollin’”
” Back then they didn’t know me, now I’m hot they see me trollin’- I SAID”

Bobby Kotick!!
Befo’ I came up in this industry it was all about the fun

I got tired of 4kids and their bad translations
Then I saw WoW, I was so proud, its where I needed to be
All because they made them elves pay those little fees
They saw my money needs, and their need for call of duty
Now they wanna raise their fees, make some dlc, and milk my games like cod
The fans must love to diss me, fuck they mail me threats and miss there mods
Say bye bye brutal legend, fuck man that game is flawed
A C T, I V I, S I O N
Hit Kotick up on the low cause Bobby Kotick’s about to blow
Befo’ blizzard was in my grasp, befo’ I got that major deal
These hoes wouldn’t give a damn if I was heah, yeah
Befo’ blizzard was in my grasp, befo’ I got that major deal
These hoes wouldn’t give a damn if I was heah, geah
Befo’ blizzard was in my grasp, befo’ I got that major deal
These hoes wouldn’t give a damn if I was heah, geah – because

[Chorus]

I remember back den, most of them hoes wanted guitar hero
But now them same hoes sayin its just as bad as halo
A couple of ‘em said I was a douche and just rambling
Now its just a year later and I’m taking the fun out of gaming
Because they see me paid, prestigin’ games, and killin innovation
And I ain’t trippin cause my wallets fillin up like a glutton
They know I’m paid, livin laid in the shade
Yo money paid for dis Escalade and fo’ or five estates
They know that I got it made, I’m a motherfuckin baller
You would want a cheaper game but I’m gonna milk you for your dollars
I’ma troll you like I trolled the PC, now they tryin to boycott me
Bitch I’ma troll yo’ whole ass like you Sony
I’m Bobby Kotick, don’t act like you don’t know the name
Ain’t nuttin changed but my pay raise, I’ma stay the same
I’m Bobby Kotick, don’t act like you don’t know the name
Ain’t nuttin changed but my pay raise, I’ma stay the same

[Chorus]

Befo’ my paper came, befo’ I got my fame
These hoes that’s poppin on me now didn’t even know my name
They said my games were lame, they said I had no shame
I told ‘em all I was fin’ to blow they thought I was insane
But then guitar hero started blowin up quick, now they jumpin on my dick
Cause they see me on the rise and oh now my paper thick
But then call of duty started blowin up quick, now they jumpin on my dick
Because they see me on the rise and oh now my paper thick

[Chorus]

Hopefully you found the lyrics enjoyable and I cannot wait to give you a full song.

Given all the hype over Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, it may be of worth to notice developer Treyarch’s efforts who are vigorously porting the first Modern Warfare to the Nintendo Wii under the subtitle Reflex. Surprisingly, the online multiplayer component runs fine and they seem to have done a good port job transitioning to Wii controls.

Infinity Ward is exercising its own sphere of autonomy from Microsoft’s Xbox Live service as it will block the Party Chat feature while playing Modern Warfare 2.

The developer cites players abusing the Party Chat system in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare to tell teammates where enemies were when they were dead. Now players who are in Party Chat will booting up a multiplayer game of Modern Warfare 2 will be treated with a welcoming message below telling you to switch to game chat. Image after the jump.

Source: Brave New Gamer, NeoGAF

Gamestop has informed USA Today that preorders for Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 “are the highest for any title we’ve ever sold.”

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has sold over 13 million units, Call of Duty: World at War has surpassed 11 million. Even going so far as to cause other games to be delayed – even Activision’s own published title Singularity – as companies attempt to avoid a head-to-head confrontation with arguably, this year’s biggest video game.

Activision CEO Mike Griffith in a conference call said, “Call of Duty has been very strong this year with pre-orders and also the special added value units. I don’t think we want to go into specifics on how much it’s up versus last year, but it is up and it’s set new records for us and we feel very bullish going into the launch.”

Analysts are expecting Modern Warfare 2 to sell 10 million copies withing the fiscal fourth quarter solely.

Source: Shacknews, Brave New Gamer

Here’s the final trailer for Modern Warfare 2 accompanied by the musical stylings of Eminem and Nate Dogg ‘Till I Collapse’. There’s also a space station level…what…

Infinity Ward has posted a new video about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 seeing the first gameplay footage of the multiplayer component in the game.

The video introduces the AC130 killstreak reward which allows players to be the gunner of an AC130 after earning 11 killstreaks. In addition, players will be able to use sticky grenades to plant and “frag tag” your opponents.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 comes out November 10 for PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3. The game will offer a Hardened and Prestige edition that will cost $80 and $150 respectively.