EA.
Naw, just shittin you. It was Activision...Figures.

Activision should be thankful. Perhaps in some alternate timeline, Vicent Zampella and 2015 could have remained intact and created Call of Duty for EA instead. But wait, how could Activision forget this? Oh yeah, the original Call of Duty was exclusively a PC game, the platform Activision likes to now forget.

Strange. I can't imagine Activision are without guilt in this.

Just to reiterate my theory, which is further supported by recent events:
IW heads wanted more money because MW2 was essentially the second coming of Jesus (the Mexican dude who washes my car, not the alleged son of God).
Activision pointed out that the IW heads signed a contract.
IW heads did their usual "butting of heads" with the Activision liaisons (in addition to the insanely dick-like end credits of MW2).
In short, they act like they are primadonna rockstars who created the best thing since sliced bread.
IW heads then began talks with other publishers (probably EA :p) to consider jumping ship. Something they already did once in their careers (EA to Activision).
It appears that they may have been planning to take assets or even staff with them.
Activision, seeing the looming threat, decided to act. Rather than give more money and the like to the devs (arguments for and against both possible courses of action), they decided to fire the hell out of the IW Heads, and do it in a manner that would blacklist them from any of the companies that could afford them (paint them as insubordinate and not worth the hassle)/
IW Heads, realizing that the gaming community likes the little guy, decide to countersue.
Activision handle it in the way that has become expected of them :p

Out of curiosity (I never played MW2, save for about 20 minutes with a friend), what's up with the end credits?

[url=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or9JB0KxJP8[/url]
Start watching at the 7:48 mark, and bear in mind that it took them that long to go through credits for their own team. It takes them less than a minute to go through Activision's credits.
As for the side who is responsible for this current debacle, I believe it is the two founders' fault. It's pretty easy to trash talk Activision because of all the dumb decisions and overall evil corporate powerhouse vibe they give off, but something tells me they were attempting to defect, and that Activision, as a business, did the sensible thing and cut the infection off, to avoid the founders from stealing the team out from under them. This is far from the realm of impossibility, because IW has been known to make decisions that are far from what they should be doing if they want to keep their job, such as insulting work of another company in the Activision family.

hehe. funny the end credits are but it ain't really that big of a deal.
in credits you put people who contributed to the making of the game not people who contributed to the release of the game. so a graphic designer is a yes but marketing guy for activision? why?
i didn't even know publishers are listed in credits. need to check other games.
and the truth is probably in the middle.
IW wanted more money. but who does not? they felt they were mistreated by unfair contract. games makes billions and they get scraps. wanted more fairness but were refused since they did sign contract.
activision is to blame from trying to scheme their developers and not letting them share of the pie but the again they cannot just hand out bonuses because someone thinks they deserve more. you wouldn't be able to do business like that.

A new challenger approaches! Bioware has joined the lawsuit!
^~~Above may or may not be entirely true, does not reflect the views of Bioware, Infinity Ward, or the entire state of Mississippississippi. This is just a joke on the amount of lawsuits Bioware gets involved in.

Activision may have also been the reason for quake 4 not being released on steam...

That's pretty common actually. I agree that publishers/marketing etc. may not deserve to be included in the credits, but they very often are. That applies to other forms of media as well; movie credits will often include caterers and crazy stuff like that.

well duh. how can Will Smith act without daily dose of Kentucky Fried Chicken?

[url=]http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/9694/racist.png[/url]

The results for this should be entertaining either way. I don't really care who wins as both sides seem like they are equally at fault.

hehe. i guess. :)
dickish move from them then :D