Infinity Ward fires employee after racist messages go viral
ActivisionInfinity Ward fired an employee after racist private messages leaked online and went viral.
Since its foundation in 2002, Infinity Ward has worked on seven mainline Call of Duty titles. The development team’s first project in 2003, Call of Duty, caught the eye of Activision, and the rest is history.
Activision bought Infinity Ward, and the team went on to create iconic FPS games such as COD 4, MW2, MW3, and the two most recent Modern Warfare reboots.
Despite Infinity Ward’s storied track record, tensions have run high over the current state of COD. Frustration reached a boiling point in April when developers and other employees received death threats over an update not living up to their standards.
The development team found itself under scrutiny again as an employee had their racist private messages leaked.
Infinity Ward fire issues statement over employee’s racist messages
On May 21, CHARLIEINTEL reported: “Infinity Ward has fired one of their employees after private matches shared online showed the employee sending racist messages.”
Twitch streamer tianna-mercedes revealed the racist messages and called out Infinity Ward for not taking action.
“How ironic! Your member of staff, being disgustingly racist, then had the audacity to say it’s fake after getting caught out.”
Infinity Ward responded: “The individual in question is no longer an employee at Infinity Ward.” It’s unclear what the employee’s role with the company was.
COD also recently shrouded itself in controversy after NICKMERCS posted a response to a Pride Month protest. The fallout from his comments resulted in Call of Duty removing his skin from the game.
And the developers were also forced to remove TimTheTatman’s operator bundle after he stood in support of NICKMERCS.
It remains to be seen what kind of criticism Activision and Infinity Ward will receive over its handling of the latest controversy.
