Got this from Joystiq
Former Infinity Ward heads Vince Zampella and Jason West are bringing a lawsuit against Activision for breach of contract and other claims, after Activision terminated their employment on March 1. The press release announcing the suit claims that Activision was scheduled to pay "substantial royalty payments," but fired them before the date of the payment.
"Instead of thanking, lauding, or just plain paying Jason and Vince for giving Activision the most successful entertainment product ever offered to the public," attorney Robert Schwartz said, "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."
In addition to compensation, the suit seeks to return the contractual rights Zampella and West previously had to the Modern Warfare brand.
Infinity Ward
Company »
Founded by ex-2015 employees, Infinity Ward is a game development company known for its highly acclaimed Call of Duty franchise.
Infinity Ward / Activision Law Suit!
I just hope we all find out what the fuck the deal with all this is so we can leave it behind and move on!
However, I had this itching feeling for a little bit that Infinity Ward was probably talking to other places about buying up the studio. For some reason, I even felt that itching involved Valve...especially with the amount of talk that they had with Valve about Steam-integration. = /
I don't know. I just know that this is all pretty ridiculous.
" This scandal would make an interesting film. I remember some dude made a comment saying that the Activision company is being run by NBC executives. "I really wouldn't be suprised.
I do hope these two can take the Modern Warfare brand with them on their (inevitable) new development studio.
We all know they deserve to keep it, not Activision.
They have a good case to make. Seems petty to fire them over insubordination when they released one of the most successful video games in history.
Hope this gives Activision somewhat of a run for their money. One dick move deserves another, right?
From what I understand it has to do with "A webcam. A hot dog. Two pounds of Old jello. And a cabbage." I want to know the details of the " charges of 'insubordination' and 'breach of fiduciary duty,' " "
" @Coombs said:Ok now I want to see the video.......From what I understand it has to do with "A webcam. A hot dog. Two pounds of Old jello. And a cabbage. "" I want to know the details of the " charges of 'insubordination' and 'breach of fiduciary duty,' " "
" @The_Laughing_Man said:In truth..if they claims are true..you must gotta do something real bad to get fired after having created one of the most popular Video games ever." @Coombs said:Ok now I want to see the video....... "From what I understand it has to do with "A webcam. A hot dog. Two pounds of Old jello. And a cabbage. "" I want to know the details of the " charges of 'insubordination' and 'breach of fiduciary duty,' " "
Meanwhile, Bobby Kotick made $20 million within 3 days of MW2's launch. Ugh.
" @Bionicicide said:That would probably be better than whatever IW's level designers are working on now... I think MW2 is a better game, but COD4 definitely had much better maps." Hope this doesn't delay the first map-pack. "I hope they say " shit we don't have the money for a real map pack, Lets just port the CoD4 maps " "
Oh, and I hope they win.
" @Coombs said:Too true." @Bionicicide said:That would probably be better than whatever IW's level designers are working on now... I think MW2 is a better game, but COD4 definitely had much better maps. Oh, and I hope they win. "" Hope this doesn't delay the first map-pack. "I hope they say " shit we don't have the money for a real map pack, Lets just port the CoD4 maps " "
" Meanwhile, Bobby Kotick made $20 million within 3 days of MW2's launch. Ugh."
WTF? The dude became a millionaire without even working. I read his interview in Game Informer and he was talking about how he moved on up to CEO of Activision. The only reason why he became CEO because he had good ideas on who to buy and who to merge with.
" Meanwhile, Bobby Kotick made $20 million within 3 days of MW2's launch. Ugh.Man, that makes me sick.
" @Killjoi said:I hate to be 'that guy' and play devils advocate for a moment, but that's business. People aren't going to put someone in a CEO position because they care about the product, they're going to put them in that position because they know what to do to maximise profits for 'The Company'.WTF? The dude became a millionaire without even working. I read his interview in Game Informer and he was talking about how he moved on up to CEO of Activision. The only reason why he became CEO because he had good ideas on who to buy and who to merge with. "" Meanwhile, Bobby Kotick made $20 million within 3 days of MW2's launch. Ugh."
An open and public lawsuit against a firm which relies on the goodwill of the consumer? Wow - financial tactical nuke....
" @ch13696 said:The one thing I learned the most in business class is corrupt business'. And it's sad to say that America is the 3rd most corrupt country in the world. 1st is China and 2nd is I can't remember. So that gets me the weirdest feeling that there's more to his story. Probably he bought his way there," @Killjoi said:I hate to be 'that guy' and play devils advocate for a moment, but that's business. People aren't going to put someone in a CEO position because they care about the product, they're going to put them in that position because they know what to do to maximise profits for 'The Company'. "WTF? The dude became a millionaire without even working. I read his interview in Game Informer and he was talking about how he moved on up to CEO of Activision. The only reason why he became CEO because he had good ideas on who to buy and who to merge with. "" Meanwhile, Bobby Kotick made $20 million within 3 days of MW2's launch. Ugh."
" @punkxblaze said:I'll definitely agree with you there." @ch13696 said:The one thing I learned the most in business class is corrupt business'. And it's sad to say that America is the 3rd most corrupt country in the world. 1st is China and 2nd is I can't remember. So that gets me the weirdest feeling that there's more to his story. Probably he bought his way there, "" @Killjoi said:I hate to be 'that guy' and play devils advocate for a moment, but that's business. People aren't going to put someone in a CEO position because they care about the product, they're going to put them in that position because they know what to do to maximise profits for 'The Company'. "WTF? The dude became a millionaire without even working. I read his interview in Game Informer and he was talking about how he moved on up to CEO of Activision. The only reason why he became CEO because he had good ideas on who to buy and who to merge with. "" Meanwhile, Bobby Kotick made $20 million within 3 days of MW2's launch. Ugh."
Hey, maybe these guys knew some dirt on Kotick that he didn't like them knowing. Conspiracy theories GO. (Kidding.)
They are only corrupt if they have conducted ethically/morally questionable business practices. If this is just a matter of them acting like a cutthroat business that values the bottom line, there's nothing corrupt about that. And while I do hope IW wins this suit, it seems like both sides are arguing about breaches of contract so it should be interesting in the coming days to see how this all turns out.The one thing I learned the most in business class is corrupt business'. And it's sad to say that America is the 3rd most corrupt country in the world. 1st is China and 2nd is I can't remember. So that gets me the weirdest feeling that there's more to his story. Probably he bought his way there, "
To think that we believed EA was the Devil. Man, Activision IS THE DEVIL.
They first screw the GH franchise, now they want to screw CoD!!!!
I hope they win, and screw all over Activision's face-.
I hope they win, I'd really like to see what Activision does without their coveted Call of Duty games.
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