Just when it looked like the situation at Infinity Ward couldn't get any uglier, another lawsuit was filed today. 38 plaintiffs, identifying themselves as the “Infinity Ward Employee Group” filed a suit today at the Los Angeles Superior Court for (among other things) breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and violation of California labor code.
"Activision owes my clients approximately $75 million to $125 million dollars," said Bruce Issacs, one of the IWEG's attorneys at Wyman & Issacs LLP, to G4. "Activision has withheld most of the money to force many of my people to stay, some against their will, so that they would finish the delivery of Modern Warfare 3. That is not what they wanted to do. Many of them. My clients' entitled to their money. Activision has no right to withhold their money -- our money."
The IWEG is also suing for an additional $75 million to $500 million in punitive damages, based on sales of Modern Warfare 2 and "Activision's net worth."
38 plaintiffs contain "a significant portion of the members of the creative team" who "designed, developed and delivered" Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. They contend that $54 million is still due to the group from 2009 profits alone, but they are citing bonuses accrued from this year and from future earnings, noting that the only condition for becoming eligible for said bonuses was delivering Modern Warfare 2 in time for the game's intended November 10, 2009 release date, which it was.
Furthermore, the suit says that Activision "improperly withheld this specifically identifiable sum of money from the members of IWEG in order to force them to keep working for Activision so that Activision could receive delivery of Modern Warfare 3.” The group alleges that Activision "made a calculated, purposeful and malicious decision" to withhold proper bonuses "in an attempt to force employees of Infinity Ward to continue to work at a job that many of them did not want just so Activision could force them to complete the development, production and delivery of Modern Warfare 3."
"In short," reads the lawsuit, "Activision withheld the property of the IWEG in an attempt to keep the employees hostage so that Activision could reap the benefit of the completion of Modern Warfare 3."
This list of plaintiffs includes both current and former members of Infinity Ward, though one would have to imagine that more will be leaving soon, and the filing is separate from the suit that Vince Zampella and Jason West made. With this, the die is cast – Infinity Ward has become a legal battleground.
UPDATE: Activision issued the following statement: "Activision believes the action is without merit," said a spokesperson to Kotaku. "Activision retains the discretion to determine the amount and the schedule of bonus payments for MW2 and has acted consistent with its rights and the law at all times. We look forward to getting judicial confirmation that our position is right."
9 Comments
April 27, 2010
Ouch! This is a complete mess. I'd love to read one of their contracts
April 27, 2010
We all knew there would be a problem when we learned of activision having employees sign agreements to not leave and get a bonus because the bonus was already promised. This is why I didn't want people to buy Modern Warfare 2 because from Kotick's words you could tell Success had already gotten to Activisions head. They are bringing all these problems on themselves. Sony is doing the same. These companies really don't care about their employees nor their customers, at all.
April 27, 2010
Activision did this to themselves. Serves them right.
April 28, 2010
Karma is a bitch, and Activision gets what they deserve.
April 28, 2010
Yep, a lot of folks saw this coming. It's not gonna do any good to my stock, but it's justice to a company that is trying to strong arm some of their hardest working employees out of monies rightfully due to them. I think this confirms my previous post about ATVI holding strings to the bonus payouts.
April 28, 2010
Well, again Bobby shows the dev community what theyre going to get by crawling into bed with him. At this rate the only way any studio will want to be acquired by Activision is when they show up with truckload of cash at their door.
April 28, 2010
Activision, no matter what your contract said. Did you really want to destroy the most successful group of developers in modern times? With thinking that short term EA will be back on top in no time. Oh and Tecmo will be buying you out soon as well. ^_-
(JK)
April 28, 2010
@DanielTyler2009 I actually pinged that guy, Dan Amrich, about your comments on bonuses to see if he could give a yay or nay. His response was, "That stuff I can't, no, because I honestly don't know. I can only point people to the legal documents, and really, should not have opened my mouth to editorialize on it anyway." Take that for what you will.
April 28, 2010
@DanielTyler2009--thanks for giving us an inside look into further incite of this situation. I too was pretty disgusted by what I read in your previous post because, as you said, that is an illegal practice and this lawsuit proves it.
@David--and thank you for following up on Dan"I use to work at OXM" Amrich. He probably didn't tell you more than that brief statement because he would have most likely been fired for doing so. And with the way things are going at Activision he may get fired just for the hell of it anyway.