Two key individuals at Infinity Ward have just announced their departure. Jacob Minkoff and Taylor Kurosaki, Infinity Ward’s design director and narrative director, respectively, are no longer at the studio.
“Earlier this year, we decided to move on from Infinity Ward to pursue a rare and exciting new opportunity,” wrote Kurosaki and Minkoff in a joint statement. “It was an honor to be part of the studio for the last 7 years and we’re so proud of what we created together with Modern Warfare and Infinite Warfare. We wish the team nothing but the best.”
Neither said anything about a new studio or whether or not they were leaving the Activision umbrella. “We can’t say much for now, but we’re looking forward to sharing more with you soon.”
Kurosaki and Minkoff both joined Infinity Ward at the same time in 2014. The pair previously met working at Naughty Dog, where Kurosaki started as narrative design lead in 2005 and Minkoff as the lead game designer for Uncharted 3 and The Last Of Us.
The two were instrumental in creating the narrative structure and stories for both Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. They often appeared side-by-side in interviews to preview the latest Call of Duty game. With Warzone’s introduction, the two faced a new challenge of interweaving Activision’s ongoing battle royale game with the story of Modern Warfare, setting the stage for Raven Software and Treyarch in Black Ops Cold War.
We wish both of them all the best on whatever their future endeavor turns out to be. Infinity Ward has yet to comment on the departures.
In other Call of Duty news, Activision has recently shared its progress in making the franchise a little less toxic thanks to banning 350,000 accounts. They’ve also shared a plan to include beef up the Call of Duty franchise’s filter tech to keep racism and toxic players to a dull roar.
