Treyarch boss holds faith in Infinity Ward

The studio head at Treyarch believes Infinity Ward is still in the frame to be an important studio for Activision, despite suggestions that the Modern Warfare outfit is positioned for closure.

Mark Lamia insisted his studio has no added responsibility to build Call of Duty games in the wake of the Infinity Ward exodus because, he said, “Infinity Ward still exists”.

Speaking to Develop, Lamia said “there’s a lot of talented people” who remain at Infinity Ward, despite co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella leaving the outfit along with around thirty-five (mainly senior) staff.

“There’s a team there and, clearly, they’ve undergone some changes,” Lamia said.

“I’ve worked with a lot of the guys there, I’ve worked with a lot of the guys since the beginning of this, and I’ve worked with a lot of the guys who left.

“There’s still a lot of great talented people over there, and they’re going to go on and they’re going to do things.”

Lamia wasn’t keen on expressing the studio’s mood in the wake of the Infinity Ward saga, insisting that Treyarch’s motive, belief and relationship with Activision remains unchanged.

“As far as I’m concerned, [the responsibility to make quality] this was our mindset before anything happened [at Infinity Ward],” he added.

“It’s literally not something we talk about. We’ve been making this game in the last year and a half. The events that have transpired in the last couple of months were unfortunate, but they don’t have much of a bearing.

“We’ve been in full production and full swing. The decision to focus entirely on this game was made long before Modern Warfare 2 even came out”.

Treyarch recently repositioned itself as a studio which solely develops Call of Duty titles – a revelation only brought to light in the past week.

“We’re committed. We’re committed in a way that’s pretty uncompromising and we’re very critical of ourselves right now,” added Lamia, “and we’re not so concerned with what’s coming from the outside”.

He continued: “I don’t know else how to [explain] it. This stuff [at Infinity Ward] has happened, we understand it, but it’s kind of like when you have over 200 people internally working – that’s a big boat and it was going in a direction long before what happened over the last few months.”