Rumors are flying about some serious drama going down between Activision and prized developer Infinity Ward.

Beginning with a post from G4′s news outlet The Feed, it appeared as though nobody at Infinity Ward had seen or heard from studio heads Vince Zampella (CEO) and Jason West (CTO) since a meeting with Activision that took place yesterday morning.  Then a “bunch of bouncer-types” arrived at the IW offices without warning or explanation (does Bobby Kotick have his own gestapo?).  A short while later, West’s Facebook status (yes, seriously) was updated to say “Jason West is drinking. Also, unemployed” and his LinkedIn page was updated with the following:

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

Later still, an SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) Filing from yesterday morning surfaced stating a human resources investigation had been launched due to “breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward.”  It went on to say, “This matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation.  At present, the Company does not expect this matter to have a material impact on the Company.”  Clearly, one of these “two senior employees” was West.  It’s rumored that the other is Zampella, though nothing concrete has been released to confirm or deny that at this point.

I’m sure more details will be bubbling to the surface as the day goes on, so keep checking back for updates.  But could it be that Activision is sending their cash cow to the slaughter?  All this seems pretty extreme, so it will sure be interesting to see what the nature of this “insubordination” really was.  Who knows, maybe they were trying to make a good game for once…

I’ll leave you with Tim Schafer’s thoughts on the whole situation — you’ll remember that he went through quite an ordeal with Activision when trying to get Brutal Legend published:

“Getting mad at Activision for this kind of thing is like getting mad at an ape for throwing feces.  It’s just how the beast communicates.”

Gotta love him.

UPDATE

Kotaku is reporting that the other of the mentioned “two senior employees” is, in fact, Zampella.  More details will be posted here as we receive them.