It's hard to think of a more charged environment in which to start work on a game. In the wake of 2009's Modern Warfare 2, the studio that invented Call of Duty had imploded. A power struggle between Activision and Infinity Ward's leaders, Jason West and Vince Zampella, had led to the expulsion of the latter two men from the company.
"I was speechless," West told Vanity Fair in 2011. "In my head, this was the moment when everyone was supposed to go home in a limousine. Instead, we were eating the seed corn and they were taking all the money." West and Zampella sued Activision for wrongful termination; Activision countersued, alleging the pair were "small-minded executives" motivated by "envy and personal greed".
