Infinity Ward

From the Audiovisual Identity Database, the motion graphics museum


Background

Infinity Ward is a video game company formed in 2002 by former employees of 2015, Inc, and has been fully owned by Activision since 2003. They are best known for creating the Call of Duty series (though some of the games are developed by Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games, with the Warzone subset handled by Raven Software). In 2010, an internal conflict between Infinity Ward's founders and Activision led to them as well as dozens of members departing the studio, going on to form EA-owned Respawn Entertainment, though some would return for MW19. In 2014, Neversoft was merged into Infinity Ward. The latest studio they opened was in Barcelona in 2023.


1st Logo (August 29-October 26, 2003)

Visuals: On a white background, there is a dark blue inkblot with a barcode on it and "Infinity Ward" at the bottom, with vertical lines from the top of the name glowing.

Technique: A still, digital graphic.

Audio: None.

Availability: Seen only on the Burnville and Dawnville demos of Call of Duty. This logo was initially planned appear on the release version of the game, but it was replaced by the 2nd logo soon after its release.

2nd Logo (November 7, 2003-)

Visuals: There is the "i" in "infinity ward" with white circles moving around it, just as electrons do. They form three circles and then the rest of the letters in "infinity ward" push the "i" to the left.

Variants:

  • On Call of Duty 4, Modern Warfare 2, and Modern Warfare 3, after the letters are seen, the view turns into green night vision. On certain copies of MW2 and all copies of MW3, there is a green line trail forming through it.
  • On most of their games post-2013, beginning with Ghosts, the electrons are absent.
  • Additionally, on Ghosts, pieces of silver debris from the Activision logo shuffle around and form the IW logo.
  • On Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, the logo forms in a computer-like fashion.
  • On Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) and Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera, which is part of MW2019 (and originally known as just Call of Duty: Warzone) the logo "activates" on a dark navy background and fragments of lines form the logo.
  • On Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Call of Duty: Warzone (2.0), the logo glitches in on a green aerial night vision background, with clips from the campaign (including a clip of Simon "Ghost" Riley) being showcased within that background. The logo then slowly sinks to the bottom, leaving a trail effect behind it, as do the other logos in the sequence.
    • On Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, the color changes to red.

Technique: CGI.

Audio: Whooshing sounds, followed by a thud.

Audio Variants:

  • On Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, there is a night vision goggle activation sound and several whooshing sounds in the background.
  • On Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, there are futuristic sound effects when the logo is formed as the game's main title theme plays in the background.
  • On Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) and Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera, a night vision goggle activation sound is heard at the start and several high-tech frequency sound effects play when the lines form the logo. On pre-Ricochet Anti-Cheat builds, a loud bass drone is also heard.
  • On Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0, there's a lone night vision goggle sound while the main title theme plays in the background.

Availability: Seen on all Call of Duty games developed by the company so far. The night vision variant is seen on the Modern Warfare line of Call of Duty games.

Logo (November 10, 2009)

Visuals: On a black background, the Infinity Ward electrons (without the i) glitches in and out until it fades in with an olive glow around it. Then, "infinity ward", in black letters instead of white, is pushed into the electrons, causing a series of flowing green lines to be formed.

Technique: 2D animation.

Audio: None.

Availability: This was a placeholder logo for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 singleplayer levels that didn't have a loading video.

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