Personnel changes appear to be afoot for Call of Duty developer, Infinity Ward, with news that apparently studio heads Vince Zampella and Jason West are no longer employees of Infinity Ward. While the exact nature of their departure is hush-hush at the moment, the problems seem to be centered around Activision’s decision to institute some changes. According to the whispers we hear, both Zampella and West pushed back against these changes, which have led to their departure.

While some are already calling the move an attempt by Activision to let the studio know who is boss, it would seem that Activision is spinning this in an SEC filing this morning as an internal human resources inquiry that is being driven by alleged breaches of contract and insubordination.

From what we have been able to gather from our sources beyond the SEC filing this morning, it seems the only thing that employees at the studio know is that Zampella and West left the studio to met with Activision and have not returned to the studio since.

The loss of Zampella and West at Infinity Ward could signal a new Activision-driven direction for the studio. While no knows the specifics yet, the loss of Zampella and West could be very far reaching as far as the development of future Call of Duty titles from the studio. Of course, those in the COD community are already taking the news as a very bad thing for the future of the franchise. While all of the details are not yet clear, we suspect that more news regarding this will be coming over the next couple of days as this plays out.