It is only Wednesday, yet this week will most definitely go down in video game history as one of the craziest so far. First, we had the ApocalyPS3, then we had Portal getting a coded update that Dan Brown would be proud of. Then, we got the big one! Now that football is officially over, there isn’t much to look forward to on Monday nights. Activision thought the same thing, so they dialed 1-800-Henchmen and had their goons stand guard in the Infinity Ward offices. That, along with the missing execs was enough to get the internet buzzing.

Like Donald Trump reigning down on an unsuspecting employee, Activision gave a big “You’re fired!” to Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vincent Zampella. Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock these past three days you know this already. Originally brushed off as a hoax, or as a way to keep promoting Modern Warfare 2 in the midst of Battlefield: Bad Company 2's release, it was quickly realized that this was no joke. Activision and Infinity Ward had been at each other’s throats for a long time. The first shots were fired when it was announced that Treyarch would be developing Call of Duty 3 instead of Infinity Ward. Since then an adversarial relationship between publisher and developer was established. The battle lines had been drawn!

Hit the jump to go bar-hopping with Mr. West

Not since the mid ‘90s have I seen such atrociousness from a publisher toward one of its lead development studios. Once upon a time, Nintendo had the good people from Argonaut Software help them develop the Super FX chip for the SNES. Then Argonaut and Nintendo both struck gold with the original Star Fox. Internal fighting between the two companies led to Argonaut wanting out of their contract, thus three very subpar games were developed, two of which were never released. The final blow came when the completed Star Fox 2 for Super Nintendo was shelved in anticipation of the Nintendo 64’s launch. Because of the way Nintendo did business back then, Giles Goddard and Dylan Cuthbert left Argonaut while they were still under contract with the big N. This resulted in Star Fox 64 getting released internally by Nintendo, and all of its subsequent sequels were third-partied out. Nintendo, Rare and Namco all reveled in the fruits of Argonaut's initial labor. Cuthbert, with his new studio, Q-Games, eventually returned to the Star Fox franchise for a much later DS game, but by then the franchise was long dead.

The comparisons between that story and what is happening now between Infinity Ward and Activision are astounding. Activision hasn’t killed the golden goose; they just chopped off its head. While the publisher can still swim in their money thanks to Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft, they have pretty much given Infinity Ward the Captain Needa and Admiral Ozzel treatment, leaving behind poor Admiral Piett to salvage whatever is left of his now broken staff.

So what happens now?

Infinity Ward has stated that they will for sure be handling the DLC for their mega blockbuster, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. But, come on... all that means is a couple more map packs and maybe a new Spec Ops mission. Does this also mean that the Modern Warfare games, which were exclusive to Infinity Ward, will be no more? I highly doubt that, only because they are a big money maker. However, I really doubt that we’ll get an absolute ending to the cliffhanger that was seen in Modern Warfare 2. I want Makarov’s head on a platter! I doubt Infinity Ward or Activision wants to release the ending to the game through DLC. Why do that when you can just create a whole new game around it? Bah!

It would appear now that Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games -- as well as a new Call of Duty-specific development team -- will officially take the reigns on the franchise's future releases. Activision is already known for milking a franchise dry. That’s what they do. Why are you so surprised? All it really means is another nice Christmas for the Kotick family. Scaring the daylights out of Infinity Ward employees by having the Beagle Boys bum rush their office is a nice way of showing developers how much they really care. What were they thinking? Were they thinking that West and Zampella were going to face their troops and deliver a Bill Pullman-like Independence Day speech? Maybe they were thinking West and Zampella were going to go all Jerry Maguire on the Infinity Ward staff, yelling out loud and boldly shouting, “Who’s coming with me?”

Jason West and Vincent Zampella are the new Giles Goddard and Dylan Cuthbert. Who knows where they will end up? All I know is that I’m hoping they come out with something a little more creative than Blasto and 1080 Snowboarding. Do a barrel roll!