The lights are on
UPDATE: Activision has released an official response to the lawsuit filed against them by ex-Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella.
"Activision is disappointed that Mr. Zampella and Mr. West have chosen to file a lawsuit, and believes their claims are meritless. Over eight years, Activision shareholders provided these executives with the capital they needed to start Infinity Ward, as well as the financial support, resources and creative independence that helped them flourish and achieve enormous professional success and personal wealth.
"In return, Activision legitimately expected them to honor their obligations to Activision, just like any other executives who hold positions of trust in the company. While the company showed enormous patience, it firmly believes that its decision was justified based on their course of conduct and actions. Activision remains committed to the Call of Duty franchise, which it owns, and will continue to produce exciting and innovative games for its millions of fans."
ORIGINAL STORY: The web just keeps getting more tangled in the increasing drama surrounding Activision and the recently-fired Infinity Ward heads, Jason West and Vince Zampella. Just one day after the two spurned employees filed a lawsuit against Activision, an internal memo from the publisher has leaked revealing a possible reason why the duo was let go.
G4TV is reporting that they received this memo from a source close to the publisher and that it hints at the exact nature of the "breaches of contract and insubordination" that Activision cited against West and Zampella in their SEC filing. In a list of documents being dug up for the upcoming legal battle against West and Zampella, the following line stood out:
"Documents regarding West and Zampella's communications with Activision's competitors, including but not limited to Electronic Arts"
The memo continues: "The Dispute involves West and Zampella's management of IW, as well as the development and marketing of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 ('MW2') and potential subsequent games developed by IW. Activision believes that it has done nothing wrong and intends to vigorously defend any claims asserted by West and Zampella."
This story is getting crazier with each passing day. What do you think so far? Do you believe that Infinity Ward's lead guys may have been talking to EA, a publisher they famously left in order to form Infinity Ward? And if so, did Activision do anything wrong in terminating their contracts?
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Dear god, this is going to be a massively convoluted headache of a soap opera...
But has Activision considered that maybe IW was talking to them as a back-up IF they left? Well, either way, I'm biased, so I want Activision to suffer. Namely Kotick.
Especially Kotick.
What was wrong with the marketing? I mean the game sold a bajillion copies.
And if they were talking with EA, could it have been over their earlier franchise Medal of Honor?
God I don't know if this an escape route for Activision or what, but this is a real headache of a soap opera like vote 4 pedro said. I'm mad at Activision though so I want things to end badly for them and good for IW and their staff.
Activision wouldn't let them go without some VERY good reason to do it. There must be big going on here that we don't know about.
Hoprfully there will be no more call of duty games!
All we can do is sit back and wait for details to come out. I hope this isn't true because if it is then maybe Activision isn't out of line. We'll have to wait and see.
From Modern Warfare to Legal Warfare I suppose.
Woopdy freakin doo. He I'm sure that someone at IW sneezed in the general direction of EA, why not fire him to.
I dont really understand why they had to make such a big deal about this. Im just gona watch and see what happens. I didnt like MW2 anyway so its not bother to me, I say get some one else to do it and hope its better.
I'm with Pedro.
Esp the Kotick suffering part.
In regards to the update...
"Activision... will continue to produce exciting and innovative games for its millions of fans."
There's so much bullcrap in that sentence, it's not even funny.
What is odd to me is how a lot of these publishing companies don't seem to recognize where the games are coming from. Sure, they may own the rights and they can seek another developer to work on it, but the only reason Call of Duty is what it is today is because (that was a lot of is's) Infinity Ward created it. "Activision remains committed to the Call of Duty franchise, which it owns, and will continue to produce exciting and innovative games for its millions of fans." - is complete business BS. Yeah, they'll make games and call them Call of Duty, but the consumer is smarter than that.. I hope.
What I'd like to know is if their contracts were expiring were they allowed to talk to other publishers about a job? If so they probably didn't do anything wrong.
Sounds like Activision was bitter they were leaving and didn't want to pay royalties to them so they drummed up some reason to fire them.
Well, I hate to say it, but in terms of legal rights, Activision is right here. I don't agree with what they did to Infinity Ward, but if IW breached a contract, they are sadly in the wrong. I can't really see how IW could win this, if they signed a contract promising that they would not conference with other publishers, then they are wrong. Sorry Ifinity Ward, but don't keep digging yourself into a deeper hole now, filing a lawsuit is just going to end up costing you guys.
we were being confused why Treyarch could always share more priority without the talent IW has, now maybe we could see something about it.
The timing of all of this publicity is quite a coincidence considering BC2 just released.
***I don't believe the following statement but it is a fun what if?***
What if this was a publicity stunt to detract from the release of BC2?
It is SO unlikely that Infinity Ward heads were making deals with EA given their brutal breakup the last time around. Sounds like an out from Activision if you ask me.
I'm pretty sure the fans are Infinity Ward's, not Activision's. Just sayin
I think activision may just win this battle. as big as a pain as there being.
If only we knew why they were let go.