[quote name='BingoBrown']Activision owns the Call of Duty brand, so I'm not sure why they would ever have to sign a contract with West/Zampella stating that Activision owns it. It's not a subject for debate. And giving creative control would clearly be contingent on West/Zampella working for Activision, which isn't the case anymore.
All I'm saying is that, unless Activision's lawyers made giant mistakes in drafting the contract with West/Zampella, there's no way they'll steal the brand from Activision. It
could happen, but is incredibly unlikely.[/QUOTE]
The issue isn't about the Call of Duty brand. There is no question that Activision owns the COD brand. The issue is the Modern Warfare brand. It is a brand unto itself. Which is why IW originally wanted to label MW2 without the COD title...but ultimately caved in to Activisions request.
West/Zampella have a contract that states they are the owners of the Modern Warfare brand. Activision can make all the COD games they want...they just cannot use the Modern Warfare name without the consent of West/Zampella.
[quote name='BingoBrown']I think it's debatable. Sure, CoD4 was awesome, but I think MW2 was almost a step back. Personally, I thought the single-player, while good, was a little contrived and not entirely coherent. And multiplayer has been full of hacks and cheats that IW has either been very slow in fixing, or refused to fix at all.
Honestly, I think you could argue that Bungie does it best (granted, they may not fit your definition of FPS of the combat variety). Nobody has the robust online stat tracking system like Bungie (I'm still angry IW didn't include that in MW2, a huge oversight on their part), and nobody has the great theater/online video sharing feature that Bungie has. Certainly, I don't think everything Bungie has done is great, they have their faults as well, it's just that their faults aren't as glaring. For instance, they've never had a game with the myriad of hacks or cheats that MW2 is going through, and their games have been some of the most popular FPSs of all time.[/QUOTE]
MW2 was a step back...and you can blame Activision for that. West/Zampella have thoroughly stated they are disappointed with MW2 and wasn't the game they really wanted to make. They were forced to release the game as is due to Activision's strict release date of November 2009. This one is a complex situation, but to fully understand it, one has to have industry experience to grasp the constant struggles internal developers have with publishers that are never made public.
As for cheats, hacks, exploits...they exist in all games. The problem is that MW2 is an extremely high profile game (and so is Halo, sure)...but a lot of the COD community were ticked off concerning the lack of dedicated servers (PC community that is). And as a result, the backlash of underground programmers to create as many hacks and cheats to effectively destroy the online aspect of the game as a form of retaliation ensued. Those hacks were then applied for the consoles as well. That's the reason why MW2 is plagued with hacks...not due to any lack of programming talent.
IW/Respawn guys are some of THE most talented people in this industry. Their games reinvented the shooter and how it should be played. Looking down the iron sights of a gun is now a staple in most shooters today, and you can thank them for that. Implementing light RPG aspects into it's MP, driven by experience points, classes, perks and customizable loadouts (all combined) was a huge step in a new direction. Not to mention the quality and polish of their games.
Few studios ever reach the status these guys have attained. It takes a pool of people with A LOT of talent, that work extremely well with each other, little to no internal ego issues, hard work, and many, many late night hours of sacrifice (including weekends). Many studios have these ingredients and still cannot reach their level, sadly. Sometimes it requires that special spark...and they've got that in spades.
I'm just sayin'.
