One of the biggest game legal cases of all time is heading for its trial date. Game Informer reports that Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella, and their lawyers, will face off against Activision, and their lawyers, in a Los Angeles court room on May 29th.
The case centers on who did what, and with whom, in early 2010. In March of that year, Activision fired West and Zampella from their posts at Infinity Ward, which the duo formed back in 2002 to create the now massively successful Call of Duty shooter franchise. Activision, which acquired Infinity Ward in 2003, accused the duo of "breaches of contract and insubordination".
West and Zampella then filed a lawsuit against Activision, claiming the publisher didn't want to pay the large bonuses that they would claim from sales of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, which came out in late 2009. A large number of Infinity Ward team members, 46 in all, quickly resigned from the developer and Activision following West and Zampella's dismissal. A number of current and former Infinity Ward team members later filed their own lawsuit against Activision, again accusing the company of holding out on paying promised bonuses.
Later Activision dragged another game publisher, Electronic Arts, into the lawsuit, claiming that West and Zampella had made secret deals with EA. As it turned out, West and Zampella, along with a lot of other former Infinity Ward members, quickly launched a new game developer, Respawn Entertainment, just a few weeks after their dismissal from Activision. Respawn is currently working on its first game, which will indeed be published by EA, but details about the game have yet to be revealed.
1 Comment - Add comment