More details came out today in the case of former Infinity Ward employees Jason West and Vince Zampella against Activision, with IGN posting a copy of the entire lawsuit. In the document, West and Zampella's representatives are even more scathing of Activision then they were in their press release announcing the suit.
“This lawsuit is solely and regrettably the result of the astonishing arrogance and startling greed of defendant Activision. Pantiffs Jason West and Vince Zampella are among the most talented and successful videogame developers in the world. They created for Activision two videogame franchises, Call of Duty and Modern Warfare, that became the most successful in the company's – indeed the industry's – lining Activision's pockets with billions of dollars in revenue and creating a die hard fan base in the millions. In November 2009, after two years of nearly 'round the clock work, Messrs. West and Zampella, and the rest of the Infinity Ward Studio delivered to Activision Modern Warfare 2 – a video game that has already been responsible for over $1 billion in sales and was hailed by Activision itself as the largest launch of any entertainment launch ever.”
Bobby Kotick “rewarding” Jason West, as depicted in the lawsuit.
“Just weeks before Messrs. West and Zampella were to receive the royalties for their hard work on Modern Warfare 2, Activision fired them in the hope that by doing so, it could avoid paying them what they have rightfully earned, and to seize control of the Infinity Ward studio, to which Activision had previously granted creative control over all Modern Warfare branded games and had, apparently, decided it no longer wanted to live with,” continued the suit. “Instead of thanking, lauding or just plain paying Messrs. West and Zampella 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.' It then summoned Mr. West and Mr. Zampella to a sham meeting two days ago at Activision's headquarters in Santa Monica, California, during which they were fired on the basis of false and trivial charges, and then quickly escorted out the back door.”
“Plantiffs are now forced to hire their own lawyers to bring this action to bring this action. Activision has refused to honor the terms of the agreement with Messrs. West and Zampella and is intentionally flouting the public policy of the state of this State that employers must pay their employees what they have rightfully earned. Instead, Activision has adopted the corporate strategy of forcing Messrs. West and Zampella to sue for their pay - in the hopes of either getting away with not having to pay them anything, or maximizing its leverage to reduce that pay. Such actions are not surprising, given that Activision is run by a CEO who is publicly quoted as believing that the best way to run a video game studio is to engender a culture of 'skepticism, pessimism, and fear' and who prefers to pay his lawyers rather than his employees.”
19 Comments
March 5, 2010
Hmmm... sounds like the new MW2 DLC will feature lawyers as a weapon... :)
March 5, 2010
WOW is this Nvidia all over again? Remember when Nvidia was on top without ATI having a claim to the same fame? The executives decided that THEY where the reason for the company going on top. They figured that they could just repeat the formula, they decided they could just hire some top students, and near top of the line replacements. Two years later they where DESPERATE to hire those fire back from ATI which caught up and passed them. IBM became arrogant, then came sun, semens, and HP, and firefox. These arrogant companies CREATE competition, if I was these guys I would go to Microsoft or Sony and get funding for a new company. It will be ALL OVER. Call of duty will drop over the years, but what ever these guys make will be top of the line. History always repeats itself because greed will not let a greedy person actually stop and THINK about the real results of their actions.
March 5, 2010
My guess is that more key people on the IW team will resign in protest or whatever, they'll join West and Zampella and form a new kick ass dev studio and will make games to compete with CoD. And perhaps EA or Ubisoft will sign them, really rubbing it in ATVI's face.
March 5, 2010
Regardless of who is found to be legally at fault, letting go of West and Zampella was a HUGE mistake. They helped build up the Call of Duty franchise from scratch to debatably the biggest game franchise of this generation - if they want to start up a new company from scratch like they did when they left 2015, I'm sure they could. Some IW members would probably join them and publishers would be breaking down their doors with offers. Could they end up making the Call of Duty killer? Stranger things have happened - it never seemed like Medal of Honor would be surpassed until Call of Duty left them in the dust.
March 5, 2010
Well James, much as I dont care for Bobby's tactics in how he chooses to deal with his dev studios one has to wonder if adding violation of non-compete agreements to the allegations Bobby's attorneys have used against Zampella and West. Since we dont know Bobby's side of this story I would suggest holding off on judgement. If Bobby has tried to use Darth Vader tactics in dealing with people that have done tremendous work for his company then this will only show every other studio out there what they can expect from ATVI by dealing with them as a pub or an acquirer. Im sure that Riccitiello is sitting back and chuckling at this opportunity to poach talent from Bobby and its well deserved if Bobby is proven to be in the wrong over this. But Ricci also needs to bear in mind that dealing with studios in this manner will only destroy your reputation in the industry as a trusted partner.
March 5, 2010
And btw, werent the Sledghammer guys former EA devs for Dead Space? Is their move over to ATVI sort of like jumping from frying pan to the fire in light of whats happened with IW?
March 7, 2010
Bockwai good point, I'm a developer, and most non compete agreements are not worth the paper they are written on if they go past one year. This is the case if it goes one year (usually 6 months) of publishing your works are selling or promoting. The thing is I have not seen many things worth selling that takes less than 6 months to create. They are worth something if you go to work with a direct competing EXISTING product of a direct competitor. But even those have a time limit, and have to be proved as a major competitor in court. This is how the developers, and executives of Square Enix can go to Mist Walker, and make competing RPGs! This is how developers can go from Microsoft to Apple. There are ways around compete clauses. If there was not developers would pretty close to slaves. It is MUCH easier if you make your own company. I remember working for Anthem insurance, and then going on a Golden Rule insurance interview, and being told don't worry about the compete clause it is not worth the paper it's written on. I didn't take the job because I didn't want to be caught in a big mess, and get sued. Later a lawyer I met told me that Golden rule was correct! BIG MISTAKE THEY WHERE PAYING way more a year.
May 5, 2010
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Regardless of who is found to be legally at fault, letting go of West and Zampella was a HUGE mistake.History always repeats itself because greed will not let a greedy person actually stop and THINK about the real results of their actions.
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