It was revealed earlier today that Vince Zampella and Jason West, the studio heads at Infinity Ward who got squeezed out while publisher Activision set up a dedicated Call of Duty business, filed a suit against the publisher. Although a countersuit has yet to appear, Activision did send us a statement today in reaction to West and Zampella taking legal action.
Here's the full Activision comment:
"Activision is disappointed that Mr. Zampella and Mr. West have chosen to file a lawsuit, and believes their claims are meritless. 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, Activision legitimately expected them to honor their obligations to Activision, just like any other executives who hold positions 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."
17 Comments
March 5, 2010
Until Activision explains how they broke their contracts, or details why they were canned, I'm inclined to believe Zampella and West. The timing of their termination (prior to payouts) is incredibly suspect.
Activision's line about how they've helped the execs achieve "professional success and personal wealth" rings hollow and comes across as, "Hey, we've given you enough already." I'm sure that Zampella and West aren't strapped for cash by any means but if they're entitled to royalties then they're entitled to royalties, plain and simple.
Regardless of how buggy MW2 was on release, the MW franchise has been an aboslute powerhouse franchise for Activision in terms of revenue, player following, brand recognition/loyalty, etc. In my mind, they would have had to do something really sketchy to warrant not getting paid.
March 5, 2010
I think Zampella and West should come up with a title like, "call of loyalty" and have at it! How many big names will turn them down? In fact Microsoft and Sony will give them a bidding war, if they had right of first refusal, by funding them as a second party. EA, and any other large publisher especially a Japanese based one like Konami, Capcom, Square-Enix-LaraCroft-EX-special-edition would love to get that big western first person bomb!
Just firing them is arrogant, I mean what are they thinking about the franchise? Exactly they think it will keep getting better. See Sonic, Breath of fire, earth worm jim, Daytona, Arc the lad, Xenogears, Lunar the silver star. Get the picture? Lose talent they will go and make someone ELSE successful. Why do these executives think they can just repeat a formula? How exactly do you plug in a ART formula again? Show me a art that was perfectly recreated, and I will show you a photo copy. Hint no one pays for those as art.
May 5, 2010
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I, and I suppose many others, are very grateful that the guys managed to squeeze it into this release!
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