Infinity Ward Founders Suing Activision Over Unpaid Royalties

[Stuntin]

Jason West and Vince Zampella, the men at the centre of this week's drama at Call of Duty developers Infinity Ward, have filed suit against Activision over claims they are owed "substantial royalty payments".

"Activision has refused to honor the terms of its agreements and is intentionally flouting the fundamental public policy of this State (California) that employers must pay their employees what they have rightfully earned," said the pair's attorney, Robert Schwartz, of law firm O'Melveny & Myers. "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."

West and Zampella are coming out swinging. "We were shocked by Activision's decision to terminate our contract," Jason West says. "We poured our heart and soul into that company, building not only a world class development studio, but assembling a team we've been proud to work with for nearly a decade. We think the work we've done speaks for itself."

"After all we have given to Activision, we shouldn't have to sue to get paid", Zampella adds.

Interestingly, in addition to seeking the unpaid royalties, the pair are also after "the contractual rights Activision granted to West and Zampella to control Modern Warfare-branded games". Whether that means they want to make "Modern Warfare" games without Activision, or would seek to have the brand buried if it's without their input, is unclear. We'll update when we hear more.


I hope they win seeing the iw wanted to do servers and activisions did not want to use punkbuster everone balmes iw but its all the noob's at activisions

[Schlup]

Where did you get your info that Activision is to blame for IWNET, no dedicated servers and no PunkBuster?  Cause I read alot on this stuff and I have never seen that posted by a legitimate source.  That being said, I'm sure this battle is going to get quite nasty between Jason West and Vince Zampella vs. the giant Activision.  I'm sure the truth will start coming out before long...or at least in the legal proceedings!

[Stuntin]

Activision "Not Overly Concerned" By MW2 PC Furore
Activision president Mike Griffith claims removing support for dedicated servers will lead to improved "consumer experience".

Responding to a question during a company earnings call on the impact of PC gamers' reaction, he said that Activision has been watching the situation very carefully, "But we're not overly concerned about it", reports Kotaku.

"One of the problems with our PC SKUs in the past is that it has not been as friendly a consumer experience in terms of matchmaking and online play as the consoles have allowed it to be. Our solution here improves that consumer experience overall by a significant margin. And so we we think that the benefits we will see are going to far outweigh any negatives that seem to be surfacing."

[NavyChief]

"Not overly concerned about it"??!?!?!?!   

Are you kidding me. There were 251,383 signatures on the petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?dedis4mw) to IW for dedicated servers on MW2. At roughly $60 per game, that comes to over $15 million of possible lost revenue.

The loss of dedicated server support has been one of the major reasons for the boycott of the MW2 game by some PC gamers.

They should have just offered dual (IWNet or Dedicated Servers) mode that could be set in the Options menu of the multiplayer game. Let the players decide and not some company executive that has no idea what the PC community wants or needs.

[Schlup]

Activision "Not Overly Concerned" By MW2 PC Furore
Activision president Mike Griffith claims removing support for dedicated servers will lead to improved "consumer experience".

Responding to a question during a company earnings call on the impact of PC gamers' reaction, he said that Activision has been watching the situation very carefully, "But we're not overly concerned about it", reports Kotaku.

"One of the problems with our PC SKUs in the past is that it has not been as friendly a consumer experience in terms of matchmaking and online play as the consoles have allowed it to be. Our solution here improves that consumer experience overall by a significant margin. And so we we think that the benefits we will see are going to far outweigh any negatives that seem to be surfacing."

No where in any of these quotes does it say that Activision was responsible for it.  For all we know this could have been an Infinity Ward decision that Activision was simply backing up.

[Stuntin]

Let me find it for u sir i would have to do some massavie searching for it i seen it last year before it was released

[Schlup]

I'm sure you did, we all read alot of stuff on the internet, I'm just not so sure your source was legit.

[Schlup]

More info...

it gets more interesting

Now that former Infinity Ward leadership Vince Zampella and Jason West have filed a lawsuit against Activision (those papers were filed yesterday -- get the breakdown here <http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/702970/Infinity-Wards-Jason-West-And-Vince-Zampella-File-Lawsuit-Against-Activision-.html>) the legal fight is on. I've since reviewed an Activision internal legal memo from a source close to the company that details what documents Activision is searching for related to the current litigation with Zampella and West.
Much of what Activision's looking for is standard for a legal dispute related to, in Activision's words, "breach of contract" and "insubordination." Activision also believes they're legally in the clear.
"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," reads the memo sent internally before the lawsuit was filed. "Activision believes that it has done nothing wrong and intends to vigorously defend any claims asserted by West and Zampella."
Below are some excerpts from a list of documents that Activision is looking for. Note the last one:

  * "Documents regarding past, current or future IW projects,
    including but not limited to any and all businesses analyses of
    future projects (e.g. /Modern Warfare 3/)"
  * "Documents regarding any potential 'spin out' of IW, including but
    not limited to any communications with IW employees, West or
    Zampella regarding forming a new studio independent of Activision"
  * "Documents regarding West and Zampella's communications with
    Activision's competitors, including but not limited to Electronic
    Arts"

/Modern Warfare 3/ likely isn't in development yet, but it's not surprising to see that it was already on everyone's radar. The memo seems to indicate that Activision may have suspected West and Zampella were looking outside the company.
More details as they become available.

You would think that either Jason, Vince or Activision would either know what's in their contract, or when you acquire a company you aquire their tech and IP.....

It will be interesting to see who has more egg on their face


Jim Landi
Rudedog
FPSadmin.com
Microsoft MVP, Games for Windows 2009. 2010

[JSCCajun]

Well I hope with BFBC2 out, even though it has been a rocky start for us...  it is far better than Call of Duty MW.  And since it appears to me that everyone has gotten BFBC2 and the servers are hopping, That Activision realizes that people have dropped them like a bad habit.  We had nothing else to play while waiting for this game to come out.