Activision created a "police state" and conducted secret "interrogations" inside Modern Warfare studio Infinity Ward following the infamous West/Zampella incident, an employee lawsuit has claimed.
Nearly 40 current and past Infinity Ward employees filed the suit against Activision earlier this year - and after amending their legal documents they're now looking for $216 million in "punitive damages and unpaid bonuses," reports Kotaku.
The amended lawsuit - filed in California over the weekend - lays out what the employee group says happened at Infinity Ward during the controversial sacking of its two founders - and if true, it's not pretty.
According to the suit, Activision paid 40 percent of the Modern Warfare team's promised bonus money for shipping the second game, but withheld the rest - "demanding" that Infinity Ward "develop, produce, complete and publish" Modern Warfare 3 by November 2011 to get the rest of their money.
The employee group alleges that during the build up to the firing of West and Zampella, Activision brought in security personnel to man the office exits and "forced" Infinity Ward employees to submit to "secret interrogations" that they were told not to tell anyone about.
Later that month, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick supposedly attended a meeting with Infinity Ward, promising them that they would receive their full bonus at the end of the month, but according to the suit that never happened.
When a group of employees met with CFO Thomas Tippl to demand the bonus, the Activision exec allegedly responded, "get over it."
The suit claims that had Activision not fired West and Zampella, withheld the bonus, created "a hostile work place", nor created a "police state-like atmosphere" they would have stayed at the company.
It's been said that almost 50% of the studio left during the early 2010 exodus.
A separate lawsuit has been filled by ex-Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella, claiming they were wrongly fired weeks before substantial royalty payments were due to be paid.
Activision claimed that Infinity Ward - like all of its owned developers - have been treated "extremely well", and that its top talent is paid "millions of dollars" by the firm.
A hearing date has been set for August 5.
Source:
http://kotaku.com/5583710/lawsuit-activision-created-modern-warfare-police-state
