Ken Levine's re-negotiation makes the New York Post, Infinity Ward's new deal

It's kinda fun for gamers to see our industry gossip rise to the level of New York Post gossip, which on Monday ran a story about Ken Levine's re-negotiation with Take-Two.

The actual reporting in the Post story is virtually the same as in my post about "Bioshock" creative director Levine's re-negotiation from over three weeks ago: He's close to finishing a delicate re-negotiation between his reps at CAA and Take-Two that would give him greater creative freedom and more compensation for his work.

The Post is a little more specific in saying he would earn points (or royalties) not only on games he develops, but also on "Bioshock" sequels.

The article states that "The video game industry has been moving toward a points-based compensation structure for developers of about 1 percent to 3 percent of a game's total sales." That seems a little weird to me, since of course development studios have been earning royalties on game sales for eons. Though such contracts with individuals are, of course, rare -- at least directly with the publisher. Sometimes a top creative person may have some kind of incentive plan like that with the studio where they work.

The fact that Levine himself may earn royalties on "Bioshock" sequels, even if he doesn't work on them very directly, is interesting. Given how rare it is for videogame talent to get money for games they don't work on too directly (outside of someone like Will Wright or Sid Meier, perhaps), that would be a pretty big deal and is, I suspect, one of the main issues in the re-negotiation.

Also of note: Infinity Ward last week revealed that it has re-upped its deal with Activision. Which I don't fully understand since Activision acquired 100% of Infinity Ward back in 2003. But just as Bungie had the leverage to leave Microsoft last year, Infinity Ward was surely in a very strong position to get the kind of financial deal and creative freedom it wanted from Activision after "Call of Duty 4" sold 10 million-plus units. Depending on the status of various folks' employment contracts, they could have simply left. Or they could have just made life difficult for Bobby Kotick, which he can't afford.

So Infinity Ward now has a "renegotiated deal" that lets it work on its "future project" (which we can assume is next year's "Call of Duty") as well as "the possibility of a unique new IP that [Infinity Ward will] have complete control over."

That last phrase, "complete control," is especially interesting. That seems to mean Activision wouldn't have the option to, say, assign a sequel to another developer (nothing personal, Treyarch). And probably a much bigger financial success in the property.