Activision: "We Want Infinity Ward To Be Infinity Ward"

Executive vice president of worldwide studios Dave Stohl spilled on the Infinity Ward situation and more in a recent interview with Develop Online. The whole thing is an interesting read, but most telling is the emphasis he places on Activision's relationship with its internal studios. "Once something becomes too big and too corporate it is simply too difficult to manage, and it loses its identity. I’m always very conscious of that." Check below for some key quotes from the interview.

Stohl on what the core of Activision's business model is: "We have to make these games unique, we have to make them innovate and kick ass -- that’s a solid business strategy for success. We have to make great games."

On layoffs: "Maybe it is an inevitability. Layoffs happened across the entire industry, and everywhere else. There’s no other way to describe it apart from saying it was, for us, a real shame."

On Infinity Ward: "I’m one hundred per cent confident that the studio will come back to what it was, especially considering all the talent we’re seeing rising through and also being recruited."

Stohl comes off as a passionate, experienced developer in the interview -- what glimpses you can see of the man behind the wall of squeaky-clean corporate PR-speak. I hope that as executive VP of whatever long boring title he's able to put some policies where his mouth is, but you'll have to excuse me if I'm not quite ready to shotgun a can of corporate Kool-Aid yet.