Activision’s Modern Warfare Ambushed by Rogue Royalty Claims
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Shamed co-founders of Infinity Ward seek $36 million compensation from Activision Blizzard for unlawful dismissal.
Video games giant Activision Blizzard, the company responsible for Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Guitar Hero are being sued by two ex-employees after they were fired for insubordination.
Jason West and Vince Zampella, co-founders of developer studio Infinity Ward, were in court in Los Angeles yesterday to bring action against Activision for wrongfully terminating their employment and failing to pay the pair significant royalties for their work on the Call of Duty franchise.
Activision is accused of firing both West and Zampella in order to deliberately sidestep paying out royalties on Modern Warfare 2, the fastest selling game of all time, which shifted 4.7 million copies in the US and UK alone in its first 24 hours of release.
Modern Warfare 2 has since made over $1 billion in sales for Activision, and the Call of Duty legacy is estimated to have brought in around $3 billion of revenue in 2009. The pair now seek a minimum payout of $36 million and future control of the Modern Warfare titles in compensation for their alleged unlawful dismissal.
In a written statement to Bloomberg, West and Zampella’s legal team from O’Melveny & Myers LLP explained: “Activision terminated their employment weeks before they were to be paid substantial royalty payments as part of their existing contracts for Modern Warfare 2“.
The case could be extremely damaging for Activision Blizzard which depends on its tripod of premier franchises to cover a wide cross-section of the video games market and net considerable revenue. Call of Duty, Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft accounted for 68 per cent of the company’s entire revenue last year, and losing Modern Warfare could be crippling for the company.
Bad Company 2 is way better.
Way to completely miss the point.
I feel bad for those guys, because of them we have the best FPS out there. Shame on you Activision, shame on you.
Modern Warfare 2 has had a lot of shadiness behind it and controversy, from the lack of dedicated servers thing that people weren’t happy about, and now to this controversial firing, this is not looking ethically healthy for both Activision/Blizzard and Infinity Ward. There seems to be a lot of tension and upset.
If this is true, Activision deserve everything that happens.