I hope (of course it will) this case is publicised, as much as much as it possibly can be in the games industry. i am sure the end result will be all over reddit regardless, so i will now be able to sleep easy at night knowing even if there is no firm legal victory the internet will strike back.
TRICKY DOIN BIG THANGS! But on a more serious note, this is incredible. I can't believe the video game industry is actually reaching the sliminess of politics. Ugh.
This is so fucking awesome. This whole thing sounds like a spoof of the fallout between the two sides, and the fact that it's real makes it all the more hilarious. "There was also discussion about obtaining private access to Infinity Ward's space in order to image the contents of West and Zampella's computers by staging a fake fumigation or mock fire drill at the studio." That is honestly the most amazing thing I've heard in regards to video game conspiracy and controversy, and hopefully Activision goes down in flames for this and we can all point and laugh while we watch.
Hurray, now we will get the EA vs Activision battle of the century via a modern military first person shooter (cough lawsuit) that they promised us when they were hyping Battlefield 3. I look forward to the mudslinging.
They're a Microsoft shop and couldn't open a user's mailbox? I do this so often, I wrote a script a to do it in seconds. That's not even about spying; it's people needing to share info. It's legal needing to do discovery and enforce retention policies.
Has it ever been made clear why Activision wanted to dump West and Zampella?
They probably didn't want to go along with everything Activision wanted. West and Zampella wanted control over things Activision didn't want them to have, or W/Z wanted to do things Activision didn't want them to do, like something other than COD/MW. Activision seems to know that they would be on the losing end of any conflict while W/Z still worked at IW, so they did everything they could to fire them.
This is weird going as far as having plans to get them out of the building to copy hard drives and contacting third partys to help in cracking their passwords. This George Rose guy has been playing way to many video games. Almost as weird as the great Gizmondo debacle of '05-'06.
Has it ever been made clear why Activision wanted to dump West and Zampella?
They made too much noise complaining about the whoring out of the once presitigious Call of Duty franchise, and the time and content demands made by Activision. They were unhappy there, and people thought they'd try to leave for a long time before the firing occurred.
I am probably better off not commenting on this particular issue, however I do appreciate all of Patrick's work. It's refreshing to see some real journalism in this industry every once in awhile.
Wow, this was given to you by their attorneys? They could get disbarred if that was filed under seal and they leaked it to the press. Breaking a protective order and leaking confidential information is kind of an attorney no-no. The fact that it was filed under seal was why it's not available electronically - that means it's not supposed to be publicly available at all, unless the judge decided otherwise.
Patrick just dropped a [giant] BOMB on it!!!! GET IT GUYS!?!?!
This is just hilarious, sad and disgusting. Good job Patrick, I expect some of that CBSi money going to funding patrick courtroom journalism in the coming month.
Very well written, and I think you did a great job staying unbiased in your actual writing. I'm curious to know more. As far as I'm concerned, this case is your story, seeing as how you broke it. I'll be sure to return to GB for more.
There must be an interesting relationship between IW and Activision if IT can't access their email. It's pretty standard at large firms like that to have all employees know their company email is not in any way private, and usually is recorded forever. Even when deleted by employees. That's common from the top all the way to small business. It's actually law in some territories.
I especially like the part where all you do is look in your inbox and there is the story right there already written for you.
Come on Patrick. You just copied and pasted a pr press release from respawn entertainments lawyers.
What did you want him to do? Completely ignore it because he didn't sneak into a warehouse and get the information himself that was locked in a safe and guarded 24/7?
He's been given a story, and used it.
That's like someone winning the lottery from a ticket they found on the ground, and telling them they're not allowed it because they didn't do the numbers themselves.
Now that's juicy reporting. Bravo Mr Klepek for helping it make some sense to me at least. It's fascinating stuff, and strangely not surprising considering we're talking about Activision here. But hell! Can't wait now to hear more news.
Screw E3, this is where the real gaming drama is at. ;D
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