Activision countersues ex-Infinity Ward execs

heheh say hello to MW2.5 I mean 3 yeah 3 lest they still have the lackeys cause on other sites its says almost all the leads have left activision. They are in my belief doing what EA did and they want to run it al into the ground I hope the the studio spin off makes another great game under EA lest they wont breath down their necks every five secounds.

hey activision, your mom wants control

This isn't a matter of breach of contract. No, this is a matter of wanting TOTAL CONTROL over the COD franchise. Congratulations Activision. You've made me hate you even more.

Actually, Activision's suit looks pretty reasonable if what they allege is correct. Employers have the right to fire anyone at any time (unless race, sex, or religion are the main cause). Considering that these two guys are rock stars, their behavior must have been prety egregious for them to be fired. Look, this is a fight between millionaires, let's hope this all settles quickly so everybody involved can get back to producing games.

It seems ridiculous that Activision would fire and file suit against the head of infinity ward because of breech of contract, especially since infinity ward just released the highest grossing game of all time last year. There must be something else behind it, they probably just didnt want to pay them. $550 million in the first week! it dont make no sense

Well after reading Activisions countersuit its clear they have very little hard ground with which to stand. All their claims are biased and heresay, furthermore it seems to me that since EVERYONE else that worked in Infinity Ward has left the company, Activision has clearly made a wrong move. I see this going in the favor of Zampella and West.

Keep in mind this countersuit is clearly intended to twist the facts to its favor, regardless of what really happened. Does Activision truly own Call of Duty given that Infinity Ward built it from the ground up? Who knows what really was going on behind closed doors that led to all this, but maybe Infinity Ward execs had a good reason to try and defect... they saw Activision was going to burn out the IP for the sake of the almighty dollar. These top dogs could likely care less about financial success at this point as they're likely looking for independence and creative feedom. Like move actors and directors that are already made, they're resisting getting stuck in some lame trilogy and more deal. I'm sure Activision could really care less about that.

"prevented "Activision from awarding additional compensation to [Infinity Ward]" It's tough to say what's actually going on here. It's strange that there's a new studio with funding from a competitor already in place. Was Activision in the right? It's more complex than that, but possibly. Sounds like IW didn't want to do another MW title and Activision did. I think that's the core problem, so each side sought to resolve the matter in their own way; IW flees the company and Activision grabs Sledgehammer and passes the buck off to other dev shops. Honestly, in a couple more iterations people are going to be tired of MW. From a creative standpoint I actually agree with IW's idea of shelving the IP for a few years so demand can replenish while moving on to something else. It's just another example of Activision trying to milk the IP and the brand; it's just gonna get soured.

if Activisions claims are true than i can see that they did the right thing but why has it taken them this long to tell the media why they fired there employes. they should have told us on day one, thats why it seems like they have taken there time to come up with a plausable lie in order to save there own hides.

I agree with chapel, I think everybody here want to just side with the developers because traditionaly they're the "good guys", but really, isn't it a little too soon to be joining the competition. Activision's side of the story is more plausibe (at least to me) given the developers latest actions.

I fail to see why people are against activisions filing. Look at what they have said, they feared that Zampella and West were after infinity ward ownership and that they were in secret talks with EA. West and Zapella's lawsuit seeks ownership of the Call of Duty franchise and they have just taken jobs at EA. I think they have proven all that activision suspected.

Vladimir Lenin once said "There is a quality in quantity." I think Activision took this idea too far.

Instead of cooperating with developers to make new franchises to milk, Activision sues employees that they've just fired. And they wonder why EA is a bigger company.

and who loses not me

Cuz I'm sure that "[stealing] the Infinity Ward studio" would be totally easy (if you didn't detect the note of sarcasm, there is one). I love how Activision cites their "misdeeds" yet only provides one: an unproven "secret trip". If there was infallible evidence, they would've looked better by saying so but they didn't. It makes you wonder... This sounds like another money grabbing scheme from a company who I used to respect. Neither side has yet proven their case, but Activision looks to be pretty guilty right now. It all lines up with how Kotick is running the company. Bloody idiots.

@SW2093 Lol what story? MW2 had the worst mess of a story i've seen in recent years and i've seen 'Submerged'

just how much Activision wants to lose its fans ?

Expected but still kinda silly.

EA>Activision

A 3 billion dollar franchise, thats big time kill people or run a public smear campaign type money. Make no mistake, Activision is no different than any other company when big time dollars start rolling in. They have a giant cash cow, then they see some of their employees begin thinking for themselves a little more, and decide to nip it in the bud. Its extremely common behavior to fire such employees who endanger the bottom line, even when those employees have straightforward honest intentions. I cant fault either party regardless of the facts, cause this is the core of human nature.

So Ozzy is the prince of darkness and can tell the future? Awesome! Activision is trying to bully their way around and EA is a bigger and more profitable bully. EA will probably pay Activision off just to shut them up.

Well it doesnt explain one crucial thing WHAT IS GONNA HAPPEN TO MODERN WARFARE 3 i mean seriously you cant leave a story like that in limbo

i tell you whats funny, about 2 days ago i said " it would be funny if west and zampella joined EA for a new franchise", guess what happened?

who cares. Even if the 2 guys lose the rights to MW, you think they won't design another modern day shooter? You think they won't steal a bunch of ideas from the game and pump it into a new one. Infinity ward would use the same engine again and maby make a decent 3rd, hard to screw a game thats setup already (but yes, it has been done but I am sure QA qould be up their butts) Who cares...............Maby we will get 2 great shooters to look forward to now. MW and "whatever new they make".

Hmmm COD games are now going to be made by Treyarch, Sledgehammer studios and the now broken Infinity Ward? Yeah its safe to say that the COD franchise is going to be sucky from now on... oh well it was fun while it lastest *moves on with life*

It's like watching two adults in a nasty divorce fight fighting over who gets the toilet seat and who gets the children. This is just getting so out of line it's hard to see what is truth and what is mud being slung at each other.

I'm gonna sue you, and your gonna sue me. Lets not make good games, lets just make as much money as possible. We didn't make enough money so, lets sue somebody. Have fun with that guys!

So basically, since they didn't want to pump out sequels, Activision got it's panties in a bunch. Activision is known for pumping out sequels regardless of quality and I suppose Zampella and West just didn't get down like that. I hope they win the suit, get the rights to MW, and start their own studio with EA. I enjoy the MW series and can't wait for a third, but I'd also like to see what else they can make. F* Activision.

Ouch. Quite a blow Activision took when it lost those guys. Now their main competition, a suddenly not-as-soulless EA picked them up exclusively? This got interesting. I hope to see some great new IPs out of Respawn.

Don't really care. As long as MW3 lives up to whatever is expected.

"In what's surely one of the biggest megatons of the year so far, fired Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella have announced the formation of a new development studio, Respawn Entertainment in partnership with EA."

i'll be honest, i dont care who makes a game or who publishes it, if it turns out good and is worth the price, i would buy it and so would most of you so the comments most of you are writting are useless. im getting bored of these articles now.........i dont care what happens to 'celebrities', why would i care what happens to zampella or west?......their just 2 out of thousands of people who are allegedly treated unfairly by their employers.

They fired these guys a month before they were due royalties on a billion dollar grossing game. If some intrepid reporter could tell us what those royalties amounted to I'm sure discussion of these lawsuits would continue in a much different light.

COD is the best thing to happen for Activision almost ever! Guitar Hero is over with and now...it might be another company biting the dust. Thanks for the Killstreak rewards!

I hope all the people giving bad comments about activision vote with their wallets and dont buy any of the call of duty dlc

Activision is just an annoyance & embarrassment to the gaming industry.

It just shows Activision cares about quantity over quality. They're pumping out Guitar Hero games left and right and they're only getting worse and more lame. And they are killing the CoD franchise by having two devs, and now three (rumored) to pump out installments every year just to make a buck. MW2 is not a bad game, but it could've been better if they had an open beta for MP like they did for CoD 4. Granted CoD 4 had its share of problems, but not like the atrocities seen in MW2. This game was obviously rushed to meet their deadline for a November release.Infinity Ward needs to get out while they can or we can all say goodbye to this franchise.

I sue you buddy. I countersue your sue, buddy

F**k Activision. I do hope Infinity Ward go solo, they are famed enough to make it on their own now, and creative enough to take care of Modern Warfare 3 without Activision's selfish greedy claws groping at the assets.

Activision : We rip them off then we sue them.

It's time for activists to fight activision...

they should make a behind the scenes video or include this in the making like video for mwf3 as a limited special edition content it will make more money out of the court case videos you money hungry basterds

I always hated Activision, but this just puts them on the first place, where the second is far away :)

"... designed to steal the [Infinity Ward] studio..." Like how Bobby? Were they trying to fit it under some unseasonal ski jackets? It's pretty tough to steal a multi-million dollar division of a company. There's all these legal documents and things that go with it... it's not like they can just take the company and run out of state with it and operate in secret somewhere. Did their lawyers actually put that bit of language in the text of the suit? If so, I would try to get the money I paid them back.

Dr roboKotnick is evil and must be destroyed !! :-D

it is the RISE of new studio & a new age of games !!!!

I learned a long time ago that Activision does not deserve our money - ever. Sad that Blizzard is being forced to embrace Activision by Vivendi.

Activision shot itself in the foot now. This IW controversy will surely discourage any developing team to publish or work out a deal with Activision in the near future. The guys at Blizzard if you are reading this please run away now or Activision will later tarnish the good name you guys have on the gaming world.

Oh? What's this? Activision kicking and screaming all over the ground just because a couple of men needed to get the hell away from their greedy clutches? C'mon now. Activision has officially topped my "worst monopoly organization" list; surpassing Wal-Mart even.

Without Infinity Ward, Modern Warfare 3 is gonna suck ass :/