This month, two highly talented studios are merging to create a single ‘super’ studio. The studios I’m talking about are Infinity Ward and Neversoft Entertainment. Both of these studios have worked on titles that are very popular and loved by many.
Infinity Ward is popular for their Call of Duty games. They have worked on Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty: Ghosts. And the games that Neversoft Entertainment is famous for are the Tony Hawk’s games and the Guitar Hero series, both of which are very popular. Recently, the two studios collaborated on the most recent Call of Duty, Call of Duty: Ghosts, and now they have decided to merge together.
The newly merged studio will still be called Infinity Ward. Giant Bomb obtained an internal memo which was written by Activision CEO, Eric Hirshberg, which said, “As you know, Neversoft and Infinity Ward teamed up for the development of Call of Duty: Ghosts. And throu0gh that process, it became clear that the two studios have very complementary skill sets. Between these two excellent studios, it seemed like a single ‘super-studio’ could emerge.”
So Neversoft or Neversoft Entertainment name will be completely abandoned. Hirshberg continued by saying, “The impact of their 20-year run of hard work and success cannot be overstated, As already mentioned, we are merging these two very talented teams and obviously had to choose a name for the combined studio. Since the Infinity Ward brand is indelibly tied to the Call of Duty franchise, it is the sensible choice. While it will be strange to not see the Neversoft logo on future games, the important things–which are the Neversoft team’s talent, creativity, professionalism and commitment to creative excellence–all remain unchanged as part of this new chapter.”
Dave Stohl, currently the Executive Vice President of Activision, will be in charge of the new studio but over at Neversoft Entertainment, Studio head Joel Jewett and studio director Scott Pease will be retiring as stated by Hirshberg “they have made the difficult decision to retire”. But for the time being both Joel Jewett and Scott Pease will remain at Neversoft before retiring later this year.
We can expect big things from the new Infinity Ward now that Neversoft has joined them. Hopefully the new Infinity Ward will make better games than their most recent game, Call of Duty: Ghosts.
