Activision has now issued their first public statement about the lawsuit filed yesterday by the former heads of Infinity Ward, CTO Jason West and president Vince Zampella. The statement is below:
"Activision is disappointed that Mr. Zampella and Mr. West have chosen to file a lawsuit, and believes their claims are meritless," said an Activision spokesperson. "Over eight years, Activision shareholders provided these executives with the capital they needed to start Infinity Ward, as well as the financial support, resources and creative independence that helped them flourish and achieve enormous professional success and personal wealth."
"In return," the statement continues, "Activision legitimately expected them to honor their obligations to Activision, just like any other executive who holds a position of trust in the company. While the company showed enormous patience, it firmly believes that its decision was justified based on their course of conduct and actions." Activision remains committed to the Call of Duty franchise, which it owns, and will continue to produce exciting and innovative games for its millions of fans."
This comes on the heels of news that Activision is currently seeking internal documents linking West and Zampella to Electronic Arts and the possible creation of a studio outside of Activision.
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Comments
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Cathartic Denoument
Hey Activision....BULLSIHT.
"Disappointed" my EYE.
*Cause & Effect*.
You screwed them over, so thats what you get.
IMO, Jason, Vince, & the rest of Infinity Ward should go join THQ or some publisher they haven't worked with before.
dReid14
This could go to either side, but me personally, I think this is the end of Modern Warfare, unless Activision rehires them, but I doubt thats going to happen
BooMorpheus
"Over eight years, Activision shareholders provided these executives with the capital they needed to start Infinity Ward, as well as the financial support, resources and creative independence that helped them flourish and achieve enormous professional success and personal wealth."
Heh, i doubt IW would be any less successful even if they signed up on any other publishers.
Gungrir
So to get it right, they fire both employees without any hard evidence (see other news, they a searching for evidence) right before they need to pay interest share for MW2 (Boby wanted a bigger check) and Activision is disappointed at those two? I am sorry but this hilarious funny!
Way to go Activision but please don't take down Blizzard and IW with you (reputation killing is serious). Vivendi really should look into this matter for their own interest.
infamouscole15
2 guys have no chance against Activision aka the worlds largest 3rd party gaming company. And for all the people who are deep throating activision let it be known that you wouldnt be playing MW 24/7 without them. I for one am thankful for all the games activision has helped make
GhoulSlayeR
I think the gamers of the world is now somewhat "disappointed" with activision's actions to shun off such talent in the industry, sure they were just heads of the company, but they play a big part of creating games that we know and love.
The former heads of IW should be "grateful" of their capital? My poor delusion-ed Activision, money is money and you should be "grateful" to own such a valuable franchise and have talented people behind it. This just backs up my statement that the gaming industry is evil, developers are heroes, and publishers are big fat greedy bastards that home's should be bricked in.
Activision won't last much longer if this attitude continues, and the milking of annual released copies of Call of Duty games will just piss off fans if they don't take the level of MW1 + MW2 and improve on it, that's the whole point of a sequel, in Activision, it's just a opportunity to fool poor little kids for more money.
DPsx72
Exciting and innovative? ROFL! They've done nothing of the sort for several years. They ran GH into the ground and everything else with their name on it is pure crap. They threw away their best chances at new IP's so I'm glad they're finally seeing how bad they are with people now leaving the company.
Not that I care for this company or their cookie cutter shooter, I just don't want Activision to win.
npai
Like I said in the lawsuit post, I really don't think that the filing of the lawsuit in necessarily a good thing, even though I'm glad that the two individuals will likely be compensated for their work. If they win over the rights for the Modern Warfare franchise, it will seem fair, but I can't see that being the best thing for the future of the franchise. As of right now, the people that made the game are still in Activision, and if Activison loses the rights to the franchise, all the people that made the last two games great will no longer be a part of the future projects, unless they leave Activison, of course. But if they don't, then we'll be looking for an entirely new team of people who will develop the future games, and I'm not sure that's the best thing, for obvious reasons.
HazianX
"Activision remains committed to the Call of Duty franchise, which it owns, and will continue to produce exciting and innovative games for its millions of fans."
I don't know about being a fan of the CoD franchise anymore. Either way, I don't think West nor Zampella did anything wrong.
JUWI911
Finally, Treyarch can take its rightful place in the Call of Duty throne!
Mwah ha ha ha!
IBloodstormI
We aren't buying it Activision. Stick your "disappointment" where the sun don't shine. Nobody likes you and we are all on IW side.
gamerjes
Activision better bust their arse and get some hard evidence or this will go poorly. Judges usually don't accept the "we had a gut feeling" defense.
Ganthet2814
Let the mud slinging begin. Way to keep on top of this Patrick.
SpigotBlister
I don't know about you guys, but an action-adventure CoD game doesn't exactly scream "exciting and innovative" to me.
mcm2v
No one will most likely ever know what happened. A settlement will be reached out of court and West and Zampella will sign a nondisclosure agreement. In this agreement, they will be able to find other work after a certain time. Since non-compete contracts are void in California, this settlement will be Activision's way of keeping these two former employees from competing in the next 2-3 years. I figure they will sign around an 8 month non compete clause in the settlement. Then they will go to another publisher and be given a full 2-3 year development cycle. By this time, Activision will have published 5-9 new Call of Duty games and the Call of Duty brand will no longer have any value.
Topshonuff
http://kotaku.com/5485703/oust ed-infinity-ward-founders-laws uit-against-activision-the-cou rt-documents/gallery/
This is the website to read the Lawsuit.. Thanks to Jessica Chobot..
Th3_R0ltz
So what they're saying is that West and Zampella are to Activision and IW like Price, Nikolai and MacTavish are to the US and Russia in the game or what.
Omikronomi
Maybe we will finally get a Modern Warfare game without a ton of cheats, glitches, and terrible respawns.
oncetoomany
explains everything.
http://latimesblogs.latimes. com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010 /03/fired-call-of-duty-develop ers-sue-activision-for-more-th an-36-million.html
Bigsbie
This is crazy?! COD became huge and worth mega $$$ now everyone is trying claim rights to it. To be honest I am really confused who to be pissed at! I need to be pissed at someone though.
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