| Mail |

You might also like: WoW Insider, Massively, and more

More Sites You Might Like

/ Register

Joystiq

Ousted Infinity Ward founders file suit against Activision

by JC Fletcher on Mar 4th 2010 12:20AM

140

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.

[Thanks Amnon!]

Source

Tags: activision, call-of-duty, infinity-ward, jason-west, lawsuit, modern-warfare, royalties, vince-zampella

Reader Comments (140)

Uh-huh.....

Surprised? Anyone?

Oh, and I totally forgot....

KOOOOOTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICCCCKKKK!!!!!!!!
(http://www.khaaan.com/)

Get fcked Kotick!

Jeez, Activision is just evil.

I agree. For a while I thought the people who hated activision were just being haters, but a few years and about a thousand evil deeds later, I will agree that activision is the most evil video game thing out there right now, hell I would bet that it was all Koticks personal idea to put a level where you shoot civilians in MW2.

A couple guys make you hundreds of millions of dollars and you are going to fire them for 'insubordination'? Get the heck out of here, old greedy butt pirate Kotick fired some guys who made him millions just to save a few bucks end of story.

I would disagree. I think Infinity Ward wanted to put the airport scene in, Activison probably held them back from going further. Infinity Ward doesn't want to make their games all bravado and movie like, but rather gibing it some seriousness to it.

My bet is that the single player was like a Michel Bay's version of a Tom Clancy novel was Activision's doing and not Infinity Ward's decision.

developers take note: this is what happens when you sell out to activision.

I also agree. For sometime I believed that EA was the black hearted beast of the gaming community. However I been impressed in how EA has in a sense resurrected themselves and are now seeming to get back into the vibe of things. I see that Activision has taken the cape and horns and wears them with pride.

I am disgusted at how they have shown themselves for some time now. As a gamer these actions make me think twice about purchasing a game of there's or if nothing else making sure I get a used copy if I ever feel the need to purchase one of there games.

Kotick went down to Georgia, he was looking for a soul to steal...

Activision has certainly fallen far from their origins.

Oh hell yes! This is starting to get good!

/grabs popcorn

I swear that all the Joystiq Biomass ever eats is popcorn.

I feed on the fear of criminals!

Want a Junior Mint?

*crunch**crunch*

*crunch*

Huh? You guys saying something?

*crunch**crunch**crunch**crunch*

It is a biomass, not a specific bioshape.

All I could think of was this image: http://i39.tinypic.com/23m7tjd.jpg

I figured all the masses of Joystiq ate ramen.

No food shall touch the lips of the Joystiq mass less it be that of Malt-O-Meal Blueberry Muffin Tops.

Raisenettes?

Call of Fiduciary Duty?

Awesome.

I found the enemy biomass!

What's sad is that I am eating Ramen right now.

Bam!

This will get ugly.

Oh yes... There will be blood.

Activision anyone???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHpM5US2HDs

Yup. Knew that this was a bid to prevent payment of devs. Can someone fire Kotic already?

"Yup. Knew that this was a bid to prevent payment of devs"

This absolutely makes no sense. It's only the payment to these two guys, not the entire staff. Even with the bonus, Activision made a ton of money off of MW2. To possibly ruin the future of Call of Duty just to not pay 2 guys some money is something that shareholders just wouldn't back.

Activision is getting what's coming to them.

amirite?

I'm pretty sure he's right, Bobby.

Hey, Kotick!

*chucks shoe at Kotick's huge head*

Oh, Bobby.

Lol @ Dr Blight

Tomorrow I'm gonna put Kotick's head on Bush's body in that video

I swear the best threads are when Bobby and Peter come out of the wood work. The back and forth you guys have sometimes on this site is the stuff of legend.

Also... WTF ACTIVISION?????

I'm with Vince and Jason but.. don't exactly have to go out on a limb to say that. I hope they win and are able to continue on with the name Modern Warfare.

Wouldn't surprise me though, if Activision pulled the rug out from everyone somehow.

@anixmichael

awesome avatar!

I fully support Vince Zampella and Jason West. Just sayin'.

Second

They deserve nothing. This is what they get for not implementing Dedicated Servers into PC version and make MW2 a shit game. These head developers and Bobby Kotick can go eat poop.

HANG EM HIGH!!!!

*fires pistols in the air*

I love that Halo 1 map!

It's more like "Fill your hand, you son of a b1tch!"

"Oh thanks for the kabajillion dollars guys! Now you can get out, we don't need you anymore"

Greedy greedy.

I wonder if those lawyers and negative publicity ended up costing Activision more than the bonuses.

I'm sure whatever 7 or so copy sales they lost were more than made up for

People will bitch and posture, but too few ever actually go without a game to make a point. Hell just look at the Modern Warfare boycott.

I've been boycotting Activision games for some time now, instead opting to wait and give my bells to EB Games for used copies.

*waves to kodick*

Man, if they win, they retain the rights to the modern warfare name, get their bonuses paid, and get to freely develop for whomever they wish. That would be a momentous kick in the testes for Activision.

I'm rooting for this outcome!

They should retain the rights to the IP altogether. Die Activision.

| 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.

Breaking News

Ousted Infinity Ward founders file suit against Activision

Reader Comments (140)

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:22AM SonicH04 said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:23AM SonicH04 said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 9:25AM BrianH said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:23AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:36AM Flat Rook said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 5:30AM Aurailious said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 2:10AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 3:00AM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 8:10AM F1 Basu Gasu Bakuhatsu said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 11:29AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:22AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:25AM Premature ejaculation man said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:27AM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:29AM Dr Blight said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:30AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:35AM rTwelve said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 4:52AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:55AM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 1:22AM Granger said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 1:29AM Killface was here said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 1:31AM Captain Planet Planeteer Power said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 2:27AM Acosta02 said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 2:39PM Duke said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:24AM Dr Blight said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:32AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 2:16AM Flat Rook said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 9:32AM DudemanJones said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 1:33PM Kodros said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:25AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:32AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:39AM Dr Blight said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:42AM Peter Moore said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:48AM TraceurRyuk Prepping for LBP2 said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:52AM Sordid State of Eclairs said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:56AM Sordid State of Eclairs said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 2:51AM Freddie Mercury said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:24AM Magic Whiskey said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 7:10AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 8:02AM m3nphls said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:24AM U U D D L R L R B A SELECT START said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:25AM Premature ejaculation man said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:53AM Dr Blight said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:24AM ZGiSH said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:26AM Premature ejaculation man said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:28AM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 1:38AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 7:21AM Nook said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:28AM antv said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:32AM JayDitto said

Posted: Mar 4th 2010 12:43AM Ballistic H said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Double Fine returning to its adventure game roots with Kickstarter project

Featured Stories

Portabliss: Time Ducks (iOS)

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate

Portabliss: Sticky Bees (iOS)

The most popular postsin the last 7 days

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days