Activision Shoots Back at Ex-Infinity Ward Leads, calls them "self-serving schemers"
75 replies, posted
[url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/99852-Activision-Shoots-Back-at-Ex-Infinity-Ward-Leads]Source[/url]
[quote]Activision has filed a lawsuit against former Infinity Ward studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella, accusing the duo of being "self-serving schemers."
You didn't really think we'd heard the last of the Infinittwardämmerung from early March, did you? Well, now it's Activision's turn to file its own over-dramatically worded lawsuit, and the publisher is marching out with dual shotguns blazing.
According to the LA Times Blog, the lawsuit - filed this morning with the Los Angeles County Superior Court - counters the complaint filed by West and Zampella after being fired from their positions as the co-heads of Call of Duty developer Infinity Ward.
Whereas Ward and Zampella alleged that Activision terminated their employment to avoid paying royalties on the roughly hozillion dollars garnered by the massive Modern Warfare 2, Activision (of course) disagrees. In the 23-page claim, Activision complains that "West and Zampella's misdeeds formed an unlawful pattern and practice of conduct that was designed to steal the [Infinity Ward] studio, which is one of Activision's most valuable assets - at the expense of Activision and its shareholders and for their own personal financial gain."
The lawsuit also claims that Activision fired West and Zampella because the duo had "morphed from valued, responsible executives into insubordinate and self-serving schemers who attempted to hijack Activision's assets for their own personal gain."
[B]Furthermore, it alleges that West and Zampella took a "secret trip by private jet to Northern California, arranged by their Hollywood agent, to meet with the most senior executives of Activision's closest competitor." While the suit does not mention any companies by name, it doesn't take a genius to realize that Electronic Arts' main headquarter is in Redwood - that is, in northern California.[/B]
What is perhaps the most interesting charge in the Activision lawsuit, however, its the publisher's response to the claim that it has intentionally been withholding royalties from the Infinity Ward crew. Activision claims that West and Zampella attempted to "prevent Activision from awarding additional compensation to [Infinity Ward] team members as a reward for the success of [Infinity Ward-developed games, in order to make these employees easier to poach when West and Zampella executed their plans to leave the company and set up their own company."
Curiouser and curiouser indeed.
While I've been a proponent of "let's wait and see" thus far - don't go automatically siding with either party in a knee-jerk reaction; let's let it play out in courts and then see who's in the right - I do have to say that I found this comment from EA totally hilarious. When approached by the LA Times for comment on the allegation that West and Zampella had flown up to Redwood to meet with EA, [B]EA spokesman Jeff Brown responded:
"We don't have the time to comment on the many lawsuits Activision files against its employees and creative partners."[/B]
[U][B][highlight]*UPDATE*[/highlight][/B][/U]
[url=http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/108/1082884p1.html]IGN has the full text of the cross-complaint, and even if it is out of order it makes for a very interesting read.[/url]
Activision is alleging that West and Zampella became increasingly subordinate over the past few years, making up false incidents of "incompetence" among Activision employees and speaking openly about leaving Infinity Ward to start a spin-off - and trying to bring other IW employees with them.
The suit also claims that West and Zampella tried to make their employees increasingly unhappy at IW so that they would be easier to poach after leaving and setting up said spinoff. One way they did this, alleges Activision, was to claim an "inordinately large share of the bonus pools" for the Modern Warfare games themselves. The duo took a full third of the CoD4 bonus pool, and were demanding an even bigger cut for MW2, it says. Furthermore, that is something that Activision says it intends to rectify if it wins the lawsuit:
"When Activision prevails in this matter, it intends to reallocate any share of the Modern Warfare 2 bonus pool that might otherwise have been payable to West and Zampella to those employees responsible for the success of the game who remain employees of the company subsequent to the resolution of the matter."
Beyond that, the lawsuit also includes at least a sample email (allegedly between West/Zampella and EA) that Activision managed to get a hold of despite the pair's supposed attempts to keep their correspondence secret:
"West and Zampella sent and received the following messages in an apparent effort to covertly copy certain materials, reading in part: 'Dunno how to scan secretely [sic] ... [IW Employee's] computer down ... [IW Employee] did it for me last time. ... Really. No paranoia about it being in [IW employee] user folder? Her comp down anyway now ... She had a secret area it scanned into ... Probably better to just photocopy and fedex ... Can scan or photo - your call ... Boom boom pow. Away.'"
[/quote]
Activision seem a bit power-hungry at the moment.
oh gosh
It's like watching a pillow fight in a train right before a train wreck in slow motion. Is this slap-fight ever going to end?
Activision makes EA look like saints :v:
End of the day they're still all cunts.
Did activision not expect the developers to be mad if you take the money on the game they have been working on?
I hope the infinity ward owners win. Activision has done nothing but milk them
:irony:
"Infinittwardämmerung"
just another word taken from the German language :smug:
Zeitgeist Kindergarten Wanderlust Schadenfreude Angst
[QUOTE=Gordon Frohm;21254208]"Infinittwardämmerung"
just another word taken from the German language :smug:
Zeitgeist Kindergarten Wanderlust Schadenfreude Angst[/QUOTE]
I really, really hope you know that's a Wagner reference, not a loanword.
I hope they both go down
lol, "Self-serving Schemers"
look at yourselves Activision, and think for a second
[QUOTE=Gordon Frohm;21254208]"Infinittwardämmerung"
[/QUOTE]
I think you mean Infinity Fjord.
[QUOTE=radioactive;21254301]I think you mean Infinity Fjord.[/QUOTE]
Mehr sein als Schein, mein komerade.
[QUOTE=Taggart;21254329]Mehr sein als Schein, mein komerade.[/QUOTE]
What
:irony:
Don't bring your irony meters into this thread guys, they WILL overload.
[QUOTE=radioactive;21254379]What[/QUOTE]
Be more than you appear (to be), my comrade?
activision are being douchey now
kick em' while they're down.
[QUOTE=Taggart;21254262]lol, "Self-serving Schemers"
look at yourselves Activision, and think for a second[/QUOTE]
Capitalism. The end.
[QUOTE=Communist Cake;21253718]It's like watching a pillow fight in a train right before a train wreck in slow motion. Is this slap-fight ever going to end?[/QUOTE]
what
It's kinda funny what's happening. IW members wanted to leave and take the studio in another direction (Independent or part of EA only they know) Activision are rightly scared they'll lose them, and retaliate by [b]FILING A FUCKING COURT CASE AGAINST THEM[/b]
If you consistently treat a studio like shite then of course they'll leave.
Fuck off Activision that's EA job to be horrible.
Yeah, self-serving assholes, Activision is the number one example of selfless, loving human beings who will do their best to make their customers happy, never ripping off their fans with over priced DLC's which are partly made up of content from former games. If only everyone was like activision.
They're having thoughts and ideas of their own, get them!
:irony:
Yeah seriously, self-serving schemers?
[quote=Bobby Kotick]“And Tony, you know if it was left to me, I would raise the prices even further.”[/quote]
[quote=Bobby Kotick]"We have a real culture of thrift. The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks into Activision about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games." [/quote]
Hahaha.
[QUOTE=Mobzor;21253854]End of the day they're still all cunts.[/QUOTE]
I don't see how IW is a cunt
If only blizzard left them too.
[QUOTE=Gummylamb;21255440]I don't see how IW is a cunt[/QUOTE]
lol becuz they took away hour deikated servers
Haha, they're both bastards
I hope IW and Activision crash and burn
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