Infinity Ward/Activision -- Internal Issues

[MyNameDidntFit]

Well, it appears that over the last day there has been a series of events taking place between IW and their merciless overlords Activision that have so far resulted in the confirmed discontinuation of IW President Jason West's employment for what Activision have called "breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward".

More here (http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/702911/Security-Appears-Unannounced-At-Infinity-Ward-Studio-Heads-Missing-Staff-Freaked-Out-.html#ixzz0gzHwVB1O).

Interesting...

[Lance]

I saw that as well - I'd like to know what they consider breach of contract and insubordination, and why they feel the need for bouncers there?

[Konrad]

Huh... This is interesting. I wasn't too heapy with IW over IWnet, but it's a shame to see devs get rofstomped by Activision... Hopefully well get some more details on what happened.

Edit: Ill just leave this here:

http://www.nowgamer.com/news/2639/activision-employee-no-one-can-talk-about-iw

[Rob]

I wonder what happened.

[Jason]

Oh, this just gets better and better. The two Executives who have been fired (Jason West and Vince Zampella) have now sued Activision for "breach of contract, wrongful termination; seeking unpaid royalties, control of Modern Warfare-branded games"

Activision have, predictably, called the claims 'meritless'. This one's going to rumble on for a while, folks.

[MyNameDidntFit]

Haha, marvellous :D

[Jason]

...and today on "Time of our (extra) lives", there are more shocking revelations in store, as a leaked internal memo allegedly from Activision implies that West and Zampella may have been planning to defect to EA.
The memo mentions, amongst other things: "documents regarding any potential 'spin out' of IW," and "documents regarding West and Zampella's communications with Activision's competitors, including but not limited to Electronic Arts."

source - G4TV (http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/702978/Activision-Seeking-Internal-Documents-Related-To-West-Zampella-AndElectronic-Arts-.html#ixzz0hFIhdH9G)

[Rob]

Another update...

West and Zampella's lawsuit against Activision has been revealed in full through 16-pages of court documents. They are claiming that Activision wrongfully terminated their employment weeks before paying out royalties. They talk about big bad Activision brass making IF work far to fast and for too long. Also they make note that since Activision bought IF for $5million the games developed by them have grossed over $3 billion. Sounds like Activision is getting a little greedy. Of course you expect Activision to say it's all b.s. :(
via Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/05/activision-infinity-ward-court-documents-detail-ex-studio-heads/)

[Lance]

A game company.... greedy? Noooooooo

[Lance]

Here's a nice little analysis (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27741/Analysis_Can_West_And_Zampella_Win.php) at Gamasutra on the legalities of the case they have against Activision.

[Jason]

More interesting news on this one - the Activison CEO and President, Mike Griffith has quit from both roles. He'll remain on the board as the Vice Chairman of Activision Blizzard though, and as such will still be involved in strategy meetings and the like.

Also, in addition to West and Zampella, a further 38 members of Infinity Ward's dev team have filed a lawsuit against Activision citing unpaid bonuses and the like. This has lead to some analysts suggesting that it's very likely Infinity Ward will be shut down after the development of the next map pack for Modern Warfare 2, and any development of Modern Warfare 3 being farmed out to other developers historically involved with the series (read: Treyarch).

Source 1 (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=244543)
Source 2 (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=244605)
Source 3 (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=244492)