Posts Tagged ‘Activision’

The story keeps getting better as a new lawsuit is borne against Activision.  Just to keep things up to date.  Activision fired the president and CEO of the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 studio Infinity Ward claiming they were scheming against the company.  Jason West and Vince Zampella then sued Activision for $36 Million for wrongful termination.  Activision then responded in kind with a counter lawsuit.  Jason and Vince then set up a new game studio Respawn Entertainment around the corner from Infinity Ward with “seed” money from Electronic Arts after taking  a private jet ride North.  Top Infinity Ward employees then began heading for the door leaving Activision.  Who knows where they were headed.  Now, are we all up to date with this “Soap Mac Tavish” opera?

Last week Activision decided to pay its employees a small portion of their rightfully earned bonuses.  Activison had apparently only doled out $28 million of the $118 million dollar bonus pool accumulated from the last quarter of last year.  40 Infinity Ward employees have “opened fire” on Activision with a lawsuit of their own accusing the publisher of “breach of contract”, “breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing,” “unjust enrichment,” and “violation of the California labor code.”  The Infinity Ward employees also claim Activision is withholding $50 million in royalties to ensure the delivery of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 which has been confirmed as a game the team had been working on as a result of these lawsuits.  The employees at Infinity Ward claim Activision had withheld the bonuses and royalties agreed upon and was tantamount to “holding them hostage” so they would complete Modern Warfare 3.

Activision believes the lawsuit is without merit, and that they are to determine the amounts and schedules to deliver the bonus payments to its employees.  They are looking for judicial conformation that they are in the right.

One of the greatest first person shooters of all time may be headed for a huge speed bump this week as Infinity Ward president, game director Jason West and CEO Vince Zapella were let go for apparent breaches of contract and insubordination.  Activisions human resources is conducting an internal investigation on the matter.  Activision does not expect that the game or the company will be impacted from the departures and litigation. 

The firings coincide with Activisions Security and Exchange Commission annual report which included a notice that the pair would be fired.

The included filing read:

The Company [Activision] is concluding an internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward. This matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation. At present, the Company does not expect this matter to have a material impact on the Company

A report at G4 claims an unnamed source said that for several weeks there have been “tense” moments between Infinity Ward and parent company Activision which ultimately came to a boiling point at a morning board room meeting with studio and publisher heads.  The report claims that the Infinity Ward president and CEO apparently “vanished” shortly after the meeting and a group of “bouncer types” were left hanging around the offices which left the rest of the developers “freaked out”.  Some companies hire personal security to escort fired employees off the property if they think there will be trouble.  Obviously Activision was worried there could have been altercations after the firings.

Holy smokes!  There are huge doubts about the future of Infinity Ward and the Call of Duty Modern Warfare games in my opinion.  Will the talent who developed Modern Warfare 2 hang out and make Activisions proposed future ”unique new IP”, or if there will be a brain drain from the company as loyal developers and friends of West and Zampella leave town?  What about the new MW2 downloadable content pack due out in the spring?

Later in the week things got nastier.  There are reports that West and Zampella have filed lawsuits against Activision for wrongful termination. 

Here is a quote directly from their attorney Robert Schwartz:

Instead of thanking, lauding, or just plain paying Jason and Vince for giving Activision the most successful entertainment product ever offered to the public, 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.

We’ll see what will happen in the coming weeks as more information comes to light about exactly what’s going on.  Activision has not commented on the matter and is moving ahead with the Call of Duty franchise and its new internal business unit devoted to developing the Call of Duty brand.  Three more Call of Duty games are planned and apparently Infinity Ward is not mentioned as being one of the developers involved according to current reports.  Stay tuned for this one!