Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey expects Activision to “essentially” close developer Infinity Ward after the completion of the second Modern Warfare 2 map pack later this year.

Writing in an investor note focused on the publisher's upcoming first quarter financial report, he said that development of Modern Warfare 3 will likely be spread across a number of studios that are new to the record breaking franchise.

“We expect Infinity Ward studio will be essentially closed after their next map pack release, with development work on Modern Warfare 3 spread between two studios not historically tied to the franchise,” he said.

Hickey’s prediction follows an exodus of development talent from the studio which created the Call Of Duty franchise – around a quarter of its workforce is thought to have departed since the sacking of studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella in early March.

It was also revealed yesterday that 38 current and former Infinity Ward employees have sued Activision for breach of contract, including unpaid bonuses.

They shouldn,t have pissed off all mappers and modders and they

would have had all the tallent in the world to pick from....

Currently 11 guys from IW (Mohammad Alavi, Chad Grenier, Chris Lambert, Jason McCord, Brent McLeod, Joel Emsile, Ryan Lastimosa, Brad Allen, Kevin Bell, Preston Glenn, Charlie Wiederhold) joined Respawn Entertaiment.