Another day has seen the departure of two more senior staff members from developer Infinity Ward, Kotaku reports. Following yesterday's exodus of seven staffers from the Call of Duty creator and studio responsible for Modern Warfare 1 and 2, lead animator Mark Grigsby and lead character animator John Paul Messerly have updated their LinkedIn profiles (here and here, respectively) indicating that they are no longer with the company.

Grigsby had been with the company for five years, working on Call of Duty 2, 4 and Modern Warfare 2. Messerly was an eight-year employee, having contributed to every title in the series produced by the studio. In his update, Messerly left the parting note: "So long and thanks for all the COD."

For those keeping count, Grigsby and Messerly bring to 11 the total number of lead developers who have departed Infinity Ward since its studio heads, Vince Zampella and Jason West, were ousted by Activision in early March. Going by IW's company profile on LinkedIn, which puts its employee count at 97, it has lost more than 10 percent of them in just over a week. Activision has said that IW retains a "deep bench of proven talent" -- at least it does for another couple of months, at this rate.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/04/14/infinity-ward-loses-two-more-key-staff-report-says/

Posted: Apr 15, 2010 3:20 am