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

Wow what an anti climax.

Yea, they got that diablo 3 money this quarter.

I so wanted the details to come out but I guess we should have expected them to settle.

They pay money out but don't have to admit to anything. I guess it saves them from any embarrassment when details come out in court.

This is the worst news I've ever heard about anything.

Dang it. I wanted to hear all the juicy stuff in court.

@Grissefar: I think Activision was just scared of more stuff leaking, which can effect stock prices and more. On top of that it has quickly looked worse and worse for Activision/Bobby Kotick as they are looking like assholes more and more every day.

@MonkeyKing1969 said:

This settlement works for everyone. Activision pays, but admist nothing. West and Zampella get less cash, but the fact they likely breached a contract is hidden. In some way West and Zampella are getting less then they wanted because they wnated Activision to bleed. Also, you can tell West and Zampella wanted the first BLOPs to fail and for the next MW without them would flop too, but the narrative didn't really work out that way so now people start to wonder if West and Zampella were ever that important.

Pretty much. Activision probably found what they needed to pay for the settlement in between the couch cushions, and West and Zampella don't get to have their breach of contract exposed for all to see. The real winner in all this is Treyarch, who no longer need to worry about this hanging over the Black Ops II launch.

awwwwwww

Would have been cool if they got to keep the rights to the Modern Warfare brand, but I guess that doesn't make a difference so long as they make good games.

Wuddup. Im a licensed CPA. I want to give some insight into quantifying the term materiality. It is a measure auditors use to determine what $ amount of fraud or errors could actually impact a debtor or investors evaluation of a company. It is relatively subjective, but there are some general calcs.

#1 5% of net income - based on 2011 would be $55 MM

Or

#2 33% of (tangible) assets which would be $1.5BB

Two extremely simplified numbers, but a loosely scientific assesment of the $ range of this settlement based on those updated statements.

Bummer. I was greatly looking forward to all the probably HIGHLY illegal stuff that would surface about Activision's biz practices.

This settlement works for everyone. Activision pays, but admist nothing. West and Zampella get less cash, but the fact they likely breached a contract is hidden. In some way West and Zampella are getting less then they wanted because they wnated Activision to bleed. Also, you can tell West and Zampella wanted the first BLOPs to fail and for the next MW without them would flop too, but the narrative didn't really work out that way so now people start to wonder if West and Zampella were ever that important.

Kind of sucks but at least this won't be a distraction from E3 coverage now

I was so geared to see it been played out in the courts. At least Patrick gets to go to E3 proper now...

Expected. Big corperations often settle out of court to avoid PR disasters.

So... wait, who has the rights to the Modern Warfare brand? That was one of West and Zampella's demands, wasn't it?

Awww maaaan! I was really looking forward to a good, old fashioned, courtroom dust up. Guess we'll never know the numbers involved but it's safe to say they were BIG!

NOooo! The scoops!!! WHAT ABOUT THE SCOOOPPPS??!!?!

Man, what an anti-climax.

@PandaBear said:

@Wrect said:

I'm gonna guess that Activision got scared. They screwed the IW guys, and then basically dared them to sue. The IW guys called Activision's bluff, and Activision had to back down. No way did Activision want a jury to hear about that "Project Icebreaker" stuff. That billion-dollar litigation reserve would have been eaten all the way down. Activision's attorneys were probably able to talk some sense into them.

On a related note: How is Activision going to make publishing deals going forward? They certainly can't try to pull this again. And any developer making a deal with Activision will be (should be) suspicious of them. Is EA the big winner in all of this?

If you go back less than a decade EA was bigger than Activision, so it'd be interesting if this was a turning point where things started to swing back in the other direction. I'm certainly no expert but you'd have to imagine this will impact future projects and who wants to work with Activision. Time will tell... I think the next console launch will be the big test. If Battlefield (5?) is first to market it could be the EA show again.

EA isn't doing too hot right now. Former NCAA athletes are suing them for $1 billion. Then there is the NFL likeness lawsuit. And the helicopter lawsuit. And the BF 1943 lawsuit. Basically, any search for EA & the word lawsuit is going to bring you some results, as Joystiq have posted: (Clicky)

Most of those will probably be settled, and at much less than $1 billion a pop, but it's still going to hurt their near monopoly on sports games. Then you add in the fact that we don't know the details of their settlement with Activision, the fact that The Old Republic is doing horribly right now, or even how they have practically no games coming out this year, and yeah... EA is not going to be hitting a turning point any time soon.

Activision may have been set back a little by this suit, but most non-informed gamers have no idea that it even happened, and if they did, I doubt they care. Certainly none of my CoD-only friends care.

Thats a shame, but! it seems like the IW guys got they're do's

Boo!  
 
Knew this was going to happen though. So bummed about that. :(

I wonder if this is Activision acting on Activision behalf or just specific people trying to cover their own tracks.

First SK lose and now this, all my gaming related court stories are crumbling before me.  Oh well, at least we haven't heard about Jack Thompson for the last year.

BORING!

"We have settled, terms are confidential." - Vince Zampella, moments before getting in to his gold plated hovercraft

@Wrect said:

I'm gonna guess that Activision got scared. They screwed the IW guys, and then basically dared them to sue. The IW guys called Activision's bluff, and Activision had to back down. No way did Activision want a jury to hear about that "Project Icebreaker" stuff. That billion-dollar litigation reserve would have been eaten all the way down. Activision's attorneys were probably able to talk some sense into them.

On a related note: How is Activision going to make publishing deals going forward? They certainly can't try to pull this again. And any developer making a deal with Activision will be (should be) suspicious of them. Is EA the big winner in all of this?

If you go back less than a decade EA was bigger than Activision, so it'd be interesting if this was a turning point where things started to swing back in the other direction. I'm certainly no expert but you'd have to imagine this will impact future projects and who wants to work with Activision. Time will tell... I think the next console launch will be the big test. If Battlefield (5?) is first to market it could be the EA show again.

I'm gonna guess that Activision got scared. They screwed the IW guys, and then basically dared them to sue. The IW guys called Activision's bluff, and Activision had to back down. No way did Activision want a jury to hear about that "Project Icebreaker" stuff. That billion-dollar litigation reserve would have been eaten all the way down. Activision's attorneys were probably able to talk some sense into them.

On a related note: How is Activision going to make publishing deals going forward? They certainly can't try to pull this again. And any developer making a deal with Activision will be (should be) suspicious of them. Is EA the big winner in all of this?

It was pretty clear Activision was going to settle. They had no other choice rather to lose embarrassingly in court.

GAAP = Generally Accepted Accounting Principles...just sayin'

Damn I wanted to see this go down primarily because of the wrongful termination suet I'm all for a company finally getting what is coming to them for fucking their employees over.

@goodsheepdog said:

Oh god, WHY? WHY? WHY AM I QUOTING YOU? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Smart of Activision to settle. If you can settle, and if you've got the money, why risk the Call of Duty IP and franchise? Had the case gone to court and had the former-IW employees won, then Activision would have been hurt badly.

They probably saw the legal documents, figured they had a 50-50 chance (or worse) of the case going in their favour, and decided that as much as it would wound their pride, it would be wisest to just settle.

@Vandical said:

So good guys won bad guys loss?

I think it's more like "and now back to business as usual". :/

@takkun169: There's also the small matter that Activision didn't get the month long court delay they asked for, so ALL this crap would be happening during E3. Either way, this could be the best thing about E3 this year. ;)

@Foggen said:

FUCK FUCK GOD FUCKING DAMN IT FUCK

Man, I really wanted to know how that would turn out in court. Oh well... At least its a pretty good guess that Activision was getting desperate if they settled a week before the case, and West appeared to be happy about it.

I was really hoping for some good old fashioned (TV inspired) court room drama. Imagine Kotick finally loosing his cool on the stand and delivering a JackNicholsoninAFewGoodMen-esque tirade. Oh well. Anyone want to take stabs at the settlement? I am guessing somewhere between 450 and 500 million.@umdesch4 said:

You think you're bummed Patrick? What about the lawyers? There goes that second mansion in the Hamptons...

I would imagine the lawyers had at least some sort of retainer fee up front. Probably a big fee too.

BOOOOOOO

Not a bummer for me. Just means there's one less thing standing between me and whatever Respawn's been up to.

As interesting as it would be, I'm glad it's over. I'd rather have Respawn focus on their new IP so we can see what the hell it is.

I agree with everyone who's disappointed. This is a very anti-climatic ending to this case.

@takkun169 said:

Well this is all kinds of anticlimactic.

Didn't Activision put a billion dollars aside and say that they didn't believe it would negatively affect their financial outlook just last week? They still could very well have lost a huge amount of money from this, aside from the damage done to their already iffy image. I feel like most people who are familiar with Activision have always thought they were a bit on the evil side, and letting this trial go on for as long as it did, enough dirt came out to pretty much confirm that... yes, they are in fact, the bad guys.

It's pretty damn ironic that "Project Icebreaker" did more damage to Activision than West and Zampella. HAH!

I'm still waaaay disappointed that this is over in this very boring way.

It wouldn't be such a bummer if they disclosed the amount settled.

I think people would forget about the whole thing a lot quicker if they did that.

here's what happened. the bigger company gave a shitload of money to the smaller one so the smaller one wouldn't make them look bad before taking roughly the same sum of money. BUSINESS!

So good guys won bad guys loss?

Maybe both parties can't afford to lose with that huge amount of money on the line.

It was fun while it lasted.

And both parties got mountains of publicity out of it.

Bummer, I was looking forward to the show.

Well this is all kinds of anticlimactic.

Didn't Activision put a billion dollars aside and say that they didn't believe it would negatively affect their financial outlook just last week? They still could very well have lost a huge amount of money from this, aside from the damage done to their already iffy image. I feel like most people who are familiar with Activision have always thought they were a bit on the evil side, and letting this trial go on for as long as it did, enough dirt came out to pretty much confirm that... yes, they are in fact, the bad guys.

It's pretty damn ironic that "Project Icebreaker" did more damage to Activision than West and Zampella. HAH!

I'm still waaaay disappointed that this is over in this very boring way.