Call of Duty Trial Isn't Happening, Parties Settle [UPDATED]

booooooooooooooooooooooooooo

BOOOOO!!!!! WE PAID FOR BLOOOOOOD!!!!

Awww, lame.

I'm really kinda disappointed. I was really looking forward to this trial and all the crazy things I'm sure would of came out of it. I'm going to bet activison lost more then a billon on this one.

Pussy shit.

Aw, and you had your frocks all planned for those court trials you couldn't go to. And all the tea parties with the girls, where you'd gossip over the days proceedings, have all been squandered :(

@JRock3x8 said:

can you imagine how activision would have come out of this looking? someone must have finally slapped some sense into Bobby Kotick and said "look, no one is ever going to buy an activision product again if we go to trial."

How would a trial do anything to stop people from buying COD?

@Microshock said:

@JRock3x8 said:

can you imagine how activision would have come out of this looking? someone must have finally slapped some sense into Bobby Kotick and said "look, no one is ever going to buy an activision product again if we go to trial."

How would a trial do anything to stop people from buying COD?

well if they are killing children in broad daylight...oh wait - you said COD, yah nevermind you're right.

DAMN! This was a trial I was looking foreword too. Looks like Activision has shit to hide if they are willing to settle

Pretty sure that information releases like that Bungie stuff that came out last week were a big part of why they ended up settling. West & Zampella's lawyers probably gambled on the fact that Activision did not want to spill the beans on more projects like that, and sooo much more of those would come out at trial.

Plus, companies almost always settle. No matter how much malice there seems to be, a company makes a business decision that settling is better than the consequences of trial.

'Tis a bummer though. I don't have any special love for either party, but it would have been fun to see how this played out in court.

If the settlement involved West/Zampella retaining the rights to future set Modern Warfare games... won't that come out anyway? Or does the settlement merely indicate a cash only deal?

According to Fritz, West was seen smiling in the courtroom as the news was announced.

sadtrombone.wav

I really wanted to see how this was going to pay out in court.

Good to see the ex Infinity Ward people getting what they are owed. They created one of the most successful properties in game history. Over a billion dollars in sales on MW2. Everyone at that studio should have been treated like kings by Activision, instead they get shit on. Talk about killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

Now that they have some fuck you money it's going to be real interesting to see what Respawn comes out with next. Exciting times we live in.

thats ashame..would have been interesting.

@oobs: I'd rather have it this way. Lets not waste the legal system's time if we can settle these kinds of problems without them.

@Zatoichi_Sanjuro: That is what I am most curious about as well. Especially since west and zampella and the rest of the crew created this IP, I would love to see them get those rights back!

This is one of the best-case scenarios. Now what is Respawn working on?

Expected this but still disappointing.

Well. That was anti-climatic.

Somewhere, Bobby Kotick is sitting in an office chair and twisting his mustache...

"Yes! They fell for it. It is all part of my plan..."

@DeepSpace9MM: Try to find a job where someone likes him?

Patrick loves lunches

Weak Activision! Weak!

I wonder what the new Respawn game will be like.

No fedora hat to the court room. It was cheaper for Activision to settle than have the thing drag out.

wtf. coolest trial like ever and they cancel it.

Settlement=guilty of wrong doing. That settles it for me too. I will not be buying another ActiVision game until they right their ways. how could I buy a game from them knowing how they treat their employees and the lengths they would go to to screw their employees over? Answer: I can't, and neither should you.

Would they have paid out if they were in the right? I suppose business and ethics aren't the same thing, and whatever cost the least is what they would have chosen.

So long as the ex-Infinity Ward guys land on their feet and get to keep making games I'm happy. I'm sure no one expected this to be the end of Call of Duty or anything. It seems fitting that the result benefits the ex-Infinity Ward guys without punishing the current Call of Duty developers, just taking some of their plentiful profit I assume.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

The note to shareholders there definitely makes me think :It's a fucking lot of money.

"UPDATE: Activision has issued a press release about the settlement, and while it doesn't include much that we didn't already know, it does mention the settlement will "not have a material impact" on the company's bottom line."

So, Activision will continue to do everything in its power to make obscene profits annually, that's great to know.

I was looking forward to this case more than E3. Oh well. Sorry, Patrick!

Hmm.. Maybe West and Zampella could just buy EA and fix that ship

I wonder if the attorneys for the IW guys showed their hand and Activision blinked.

@adoggz said:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

BUT I WANT VIDEO GAME DRAMA GOD DAMMIT

I was so looking forward to Pitfall Harry being called in as a material witness.

It's funny reading their Game Informer interview, and then seeing this. "A settlement won't work. We want to blow this shit open." *settlement agreed upon* Way to go, guys.

@wumbo3000 said:

@adoggz said:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

They knew going public would reveal in great detail both a lot of their unethical behavior as well as publishing plans that are normally locked under watertight NDA's. We've already seen some of it with the Bungie reveals, so at full trial it would only get worse. They stood to lose even more money in both an inevitable loss in court as well as showing their hand to the world, and more importantly, to their competition.

Smart move by Activision to settle, despite telegraphing their wrongdoing by doing so.

EA's statement:

"Activision's refusal to pay their talent and attempt to blame EA were absurd. This settlement is a vindication of Vince and Jason, and the right of creative artists to collect the rewards due for their hard work."

Judging by the fact that Activision doesn't expect a loss due to increased quarter profits, it sounds like they paid out big time.

@Jayzilla: I hope you also plan on not buying any products from Rockstar, EA, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Nintendo, Sony, HP, Intel etc. . .

So basically what I read from that is that all that Diablo money made a settlement more reasonable than trying to fight what was going to be a PR nightmare if nothing else in the court system.

I kind of wanted to see the fireworks :/

"Activision had previously disclosed it had set aside one billion dollars for the case, if the outcome went against Activision in the worst possible way."

What does this sentence mean? They set aside money if the outcome went against them?

Now what am I going to do with all these boxes of "Trial of the Century-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y" t-shirts I just ordered?

You know I was kinda looking forward to coverage of this lawsuit, hoping it would turn into something huge. Don't get me wrong, both parties having settled out of court is certainly a good thing. We can now move on. Respawn can probably go ahead and announce their game now.

Did they (Activision) actually have to pay less than $1 billion?

Why won't it show up on the quarterly filings?

@zigx said:

Now what am I going to do with all these boxes of "Trial of the Century-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y-y" t-shirts I just ordered?

Eh, just wait a few weeks. Something else will pop up.