IW Sues Activision

Surprise surprise! The controversial and sudden firing of Infinity Ward bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella have ended, as such things often do, in a lawsuit. Having been let go just weeks before Activision was due to give them a hefty royalty payment, West and Zampella claim that Activision breached its contract and then "seized control of the Infinity Ward studio."

"Activision has refused to honour the terms of its agreements and is intentionally flouting the fundamental public policy of this State (California) that employers must pay their employees what they have rightfully earned," alleges the pair's lawyer. "Instead of thanking, lauding, or just plain paying Jason and Vince for giving Activision the most successful entertainment product ever offered to the public, last month Activision hired lawyers to conduct a pretextual 'investigation' into unstated and unsubstantiated charges of 'insubordination' and 'breach of fiduciary duty,' which then became the grounds for their termination on Monday, March 1st.

West adds: "We were shocked by Activision's decision to terminate our contract. We poured our heart and soul into that company, building not only a world class development studio, but assembling a team we've been proud to work with for nearly a decade. We think the work we've done speaks for itself."

Zampella simply said, "We shouldn't have to sue to get paid."

LOS ANGELES, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- O'Melveny & Myers LLP today filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court a lawsuit against Activision Publishing, Inc., on behalf of video game developers Jason West and Vince Zampella. West and Zampella developed two of the most successful videogames in history Call of Duty and Modern Warfare at the Infinity Ward studio, a company they co-founded in 2001. After its acquisition by Activision in November 2003, West and Zampella served as president/game director and CEO, respectively. Activision terminated their employment weeks before they were to be paid substantial royalty payments as part of their existing contracts for Modern Warfare 2.
"Activision has refused to honor the terms of its agreements and is intentionally flouting the fundamental public policy of this State (California) that employers must pay their employees what they have rightfully earned," said their attorney Robert Schwartz. "Instead of thanking, lauding, or just plain paying Jason and Vince for giving Activision the most successful entertainment product ever offered to the public, last month Activision hired lawyers to conduct a pretextual 'investigation' into unstated and unsubstantiated charges of 'insubordination' and 'breach of fiduciary duty,' which then became the grounds for their termination on Monday, March 1st."
"We were shocked by Activision's decision to terminate our contract," said West. "We poured our heart and soul into that company, building not only a world class development studio, but assembling a team we've been proud to work with for nearly a decade. We think the work we've done speaks for itself."
Zampella added, "After all we have given to Activision, we shouldn't have to sue to get paid."
Modern Warfare 2 is arguably one of the most successful games in history and together with Call of Duty, has generated more than $3 billion in sales for Activision. In addition, Activision seized control of the Infinity Ward studio, to which Activision had previously granted creative control over all Modern Warfare-branded games. The suit was filed to vindicate the rights of West and Zampella to be paid the compensation they have earned, as well as the contractual rights Activision granted to West and Zampella to control Modern Warfare-branded games.
The suit includes claims for breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, wrong termination in violation of public policy, and declaratory relief.

Source:
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/338564/20120508/call-duty-black-ops-2-release-date.htm

 

Found this video.



This does make me wonder, where is call of duty and the modern warfare series headed?

 

Same here, but IMO, I'd rather like to see only activision Cods in the future.

 

I prefer the cods made by iw. Modern warfare series is way better. Idk how people think it will die with black ops 2 when that's in like 2025 and mw is now.

 

I've always liked Modern Warfare series over the Treyarch titles, I wonder what they will do for MW4 though (in terms of the campaign pretty much everyone is dead now). I always loved the MW campaign over the other one though. I doubt this lawsuit is going to do much to Activision, even if it did go through it would have to be a lot of money to make a dent in Activision.

 

I don't know man haha, Modern Warfare 3 was terrible compared to the rest.. They were so lazy with MW3. Hopefully well see better games in the future.

 

yes yes yes

no no no

MW3's campaign was the best by far imo.
The most boring mission in it was where you man a tank and fall through 3 stories of parking lot. Black ops and all the rest weren't nearly as exciting to play.


Reality though, IW and activision are forever at each others throats, its stupid.

 

I mean the campaign was amazing, You're right about that part, but I mean the Online Play was just like a little remake of MW2's just different guns added LOL.

 

Yeah that much I can admit.
If they added 2 player online for MW2 I wouldn't even bother with MW3 tbh

 

I thought Black Ops was quite good.
I like the ability to make your own logo as well, instead of the standard title bullshit that IW has rehashed into MW3.

 

1+ This.

I loved the way you could make your own logo. It was one of the best features in BLOPs.