Activision announces it's new "Lightning in a Bottle" division.

If you follow gaming news, you might have heard what has been going on the past 24 hours or so. Initial reports from Infinity Ward staff via G4tv.com was that private security showed up unannounced at their office. When IW employees asked the "bouncer" looking guys why they were there, they were told they couldn't give any information. At that point, we also hear that IW's president Jason West and CEO Vince Zampella had a meeting earlier in the day with Activision. A meeting, after which, they never returned to their offices from. Late last night, both men more or less announced they were no longer employed by Activision through multiple social networking sites. Today, it was announced that Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick would be meeting first with the remaining leadership of Infinity Ward and then would address the remaining staff behind closed doors.

With Activision's recent cut backs in development staff and their track history of a lack of respect for the artistic process, there were some pretty wild theories flying around the internet as to what is actually going on.  In the end, the truth really isn't that shocking for anyone that has been paying attention.

In a press release that Activision issued today, it became clear that they think Call of Duty is more than just a franchise, it's a brand. It is stated in the release that "The plans include the formation of a dedicated business unit that will bring together its various new brand initiatives" and "The company intends to expand the Call of Duty brand with the same focus seen in its Blizzard(R) Entertainment business unit." But what does this mean?

This means that Activision isn't just happy with the nearly annual installments of Call of Duty as a First Person Shooter and you're going to see the name "Call of Duty" slapped on a lot of stuff over the next couple years. To illustrate this, Activision also announced their plans to release an action-adventure (i.e. Not FPS) Call of Duty title by Sledgehammer Games in 2011. Sledgehammer is "a newly formed, wholly owned studio" as Activision is quick to point out in their release. With the reference to Blizzard's business unit and their stated desire to expand into more Asian markets, it's seeming that rumors of a Call of Duty MMO are more and more likely to be true though nothing was announced today.

It was also stated that Call of Duty's b-team Treyarch, are still at Activision. For the past few years, Treyarch has been the developer that has produced Call of Duty titles to be released during the down time of Infinity Ward's development cycle. According to the press release, Treyarch's latest Call of Duty game is set for a fall 2010 release.

Now that only leaves Infinity Ward, you know the people that created the series and who's Call of Duty titles out perform any CoD title developed by other houses. Well, all the release says about them is they're working on map packs. I think it's safe to say that with the removal of IW's leadership, the new in house developers and new corporate structure, that Infinity Ward has been shown the door creatively with all decisions in the franchise being made by former executives from Nestle.

It is unclear if Infinity Ward's former president and CEO were released due to creative differences, compensation disputes or maybe something more sinister. One unconfirmed report is that the official reason for their dismissal was due to insubordination and breach of contract. No specifics were given as their termination was not even addressed in today's press release.

So now Activision has put it's cards on the table and months of hinting and speculation can be put to rest. Though it now leaves us with even more questions. The most important being will this pay off for Activision or will this be the end of the golden age for the Call of Duty franchise? Only time will tell.

**Update March 3rd 2010** Former Infinity Ward heads file lawsuit against Activision