Infinity Ward, the studio behind Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2, may have lost founders Jason West and Vince Zampella. Nearly 30 employees may have left in a mass exodus. Parent company Activision may be entangled in lawsuits, but that won't keep the studio down.
Infinity Ward is hiring in a big way, buying banner ads on industry-pub Gamasutra and hosting a job site for the developer with eight jobs currently listed and, I suspect, a lot more to come.
Over on the page for Careers at Infinity Ward, you're greeted with this explanation:
"Infinity Ward is scouting for top talent to continue our mission of delivering the most epic gaming experiences to fans. If you think you have what it takes to work on the world's biggest shooter franchise, send a cover letter and your resume to us along with any examples of your experience and expertise."
What does working at Infinity Ward entail? Judging by the pictures on the site, fancy-dress parties, foozeball, entire shelves of candy and lots of pointing at a camera and sticking your tongue out.
We hit up Mark Rubin, executive producer at Infinity Ward, for a more detailed, less tongue-sticky-outie explanation. Here's what he had to say:
"We're here to stay. No question we've lost some of our longtime colleagues and friends, but we still have a great team here with a ton of talent. We're excited about the future and the opportunity to add some great new people to the studio."
Dave Stohl,eec at Activision, echoed Rubin's sentiment when we spoke with him at E3 last week.
"The situation is very unfortunate, but there are still a lot of good people there," he said.
Stohl said that Infinity Ward has set the bar very high in terms of recruiting and that Activision is not worried about attracting talent to the developer.
"I think we're going to do what it takes" in terms of keeping Infinity Ward open, he said. "We want them to rebuild themselves."