Pachter: Infinity Ward could lose 20 more

Infinity Ward could lose another 10 to 20 employees over the next few months, according to predictions from Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter.

The exit of two more high level Infinity Ward employees yesterday appears to leave Activision's most successful developer without a single remaining lead designer from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The exodus began with the controversial sacking of studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella, who recently formed new studio Respawn Entertainment with the help of EA.

Many of the employees that have subsequently resigned from Infinity Ward are expected to end up at the new developer, although no confirmation of any additional hirings has yet been made.

Although Activision is banking on the strength of the Call of Duty brand overcoming any staffing issues, the unprecedented fallout between publisher and developer does not appear to have gone unnoticed by investors.

Despite raising its guidance for the current quarter yesterday, Activision's share price actually fell by almost 2 per cent. Pachter and others have attributed this to unease over the stream of high profile resignations.

"We think that recent Activision share weakness has been compounded by additional departures at Infinity Ward which accelerated this week, and we expect another 10-20 employees to depart over the next few months," said Pachter, as reported by website GameSpot.

Pachter has not changed his positive "outperform" rating for Activision's shares though and has stated his belief that the departures will not have any serious long term effects.

"In our view, the company will likely replace the departed employees with skilled developers, and while increased competition may impact sales of future versions of Modern Warfare, we expect the company to put out a competitive product," he said.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...d-lose-20-more