Play some sad Ska trombone for Neversoft.

You are of course aware it is possible to hate multiple companies, yes? I can't stand either of them.

SCOOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

I hope this means the next IW COD will have a skateboard mini game

i really don't care anymore

Am I the only person who still wants another real Tony Hawk game? Hello? Activision?

Scooped! Also RIP Neversoft.

Neversoft/ Infinity Ward, Never Ward Infinity Soft, Infinity Soft Never Ward. Yeah probably sticking with Infinity Ward was the way to go. Rest in Peace Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk we hardly knew ye.

finally scoopz is back to delivering hot scoopz, everytime i lose the love for patrick, i see stuff like this and im right back

This move makes sense for activision to do though, given infinity ward is kind of a ghost* of a studio it once was (*terrible pun was not intended) merging them with neversoft makes sense, Call of duty still prints hell of money. and they are probably looking towards destiny to be another huge money maker.

Repost from Twitter: Neverward is a weird one... I loved both of those studios at a point & haven't thought about either in years... Glad it wasn't a closure??

also: SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPS

Anybody else thinking of this upon reading the blurb:

patrick bringing that 2 scoops of raisins goodiness

desperate measures to find a way to keep AAA going into the new gen.

Spooooons!

RIP Neversoft. You made awesome games once upon a time.

Scoops, scoopin' scoops.

But, given the general quality of Ghosts, I'd hesitate to call this merging a "super" studio. Ghosts was arguably the worst game in the franchis, by all accounts I've heard.

@sdhero said:

It's because they have a long history of doing the same thing. They just don't have anything as big as a Call of Duty to show for it. Some of the studios absorbed by EA include: Origin, Westwood, Bullfrog, Mythic, Pandemic, Black Box, Criterion, Visceral, etc. Those will most likely have some company from Maxis, Dice, and/or BioWare soon. Place your bets.

@patrickklepek Earning that nickname a thousand times over. Well done, Tricky.

Patrick must have some good contacts inside IW, given his history of reporting on the studio.

Anyways, Neversoft is obviously just a shadow of what it once was, and hasn't released a full game since 2010. They were already pretty much just working on CoD, so I guess this makes sense. Still makes me a bit sad though, THPS 3 is up there among my absolute favourite games of all time. THPS 2 too, for that matter. RIP Neversoft and your goofy eyeball logo.

Now they can slave away at annual sequels in anonymity. Yay!

(BTW: I like CoD but they really need to start doing something innovative again...)

I wonder if they'll change the name to something like Infinity Soft, or hilariously Never Ward.

I don't know if I'd call it the worst, Call of Duty 3 (a Treyarch joint) was terrible. But Ghosts is nowhere near as good as the last few games, especially Black Ops 2.

Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's... Super-Studio!

Is this a hot scoop?

RIP the eyeball with the stake going through it at the start of all those Tony Hawk games

@video_game_king said:

Anybody else thinking of this upon reading the blurb:

I think this is the rare case where 'am I the only one who -' is actually, yes, you are the only one.

I'd be interested to see the turnover at the studio over the last decade (from Tony Hawk to derivative Guitar Hero games to CoD support) and hear if the remaining staff sees this as a positive step forward for them.

So when is Tony Hawk's Call of Duty: The Beatles?

Well, this is certainly interesting just given Infinity Ward's and Neversoft's history being extremely similar, albeit with Call of Duty having more success. Is it possible that Call of Duty will be reinvigorated? I'm going to guess no but anything is possible.

does the name brand of infinity ward really matter that much? I'm surprised they didn't go like 2K and Rockstar and then location names.

Well im off to connect my gamecube and play tony hawk 3 , for neversoft...

normally they would rename them? call them something new? just goes to show they rely on a name more than a product

Pour one out for a classic name.

So long Neversoft, you did a lot for gaming.

SCOOOOOPS

Skateboards confirmed for the next CoD. I'm back in.

@tinodz: I came here to make sure someone posted this song. Thanks for keeping the memory alive.

Kinda sucks to hear, Neversoft made a series of games that played a large role in my life. But how much of Neversoft is still Neversoft to this day?

I guess only suits can think that merging two studios after most of the talented people have left, will somehow make a new studio that won't suck. It's probably an excuse to fire some more people and have the remainder make more shovelware games on a shoe string budget.

THE MOST EXTREME (SCOOPS)

I would have just tajen teh letters in both companies names and jumbled them up to make two new words....maybe they could be called FERVENT INFINITARY or INFANT SOFTENER.

You've answered your own question. Company-wide memos are expected to get leaked.

It's a new gen and AAA is getting even more bloated. I don't see how they will ever not make a COD, not that that was in any doubt. Surely no other IP can support a studio like that.

Guess this means Neversoft wasn't secretly working on a new creative project. Disappointing.

I guess Raven continues as their own studio because they work will all the CoD studios on the multiplayer.

This would have been huge news.

A few years ago.

Scoops has Infinity Ward down to a science. Nice work, Patrick!

@monkeyking1969 said:

SNIFF INTERTWINED OVARY
DRAWN FESTIVITY INFERNO
NATIVE SNOWDRIFT FINERY
DAINTY INTERWOVEN RIFFS
FORWARD INFINITY EVENTS
DWARFS VERIFY INTENTION
INFINITE DRY WAVEFRONTS
DAFFIEST WINTRY ENVIRON

12, according to wikipedia /shrug

• Beachhead Studios
• Beenox
• DemonWare
• FreeStyleGames
• High Moon Studios
• Infinity Ward
• Radical Entertainment
• Raven Software
• Sledgehammer Games
• Toys For Bob
• Treyarch
• Vicarious Visions

I'm curious who actually used the phrase, "super studio" and if they feel any shame at all.

Saturday Night Scoopin'

"have made the difficult decision to retire"

Uhh, yeah sure.