West/Zampella Vs. Activision Rumble Gets Dated

[vansau]

West/Zampella Vs. Activision Rumble Gets Dated

Infinity Ward's founders are finally getting their cage match with Activision, as a court date has finally been declared.

Jason West and Vincent Zampella, the men who founded Infinity Ward and eventually wound up engaged in one of the nastiest feuds ever with Activision, are one step closer to a courtroom battle thanks to an official court date. The lawsuit, which alleges that Activision owes the duo royalties for their studio's Call of Duty games, is set to start on May 7, 2012.

In case you've managed to miss out on this whole snafu up until now, here's the Reader's Digest version. Back in 2010, West and Zampella were suddenly fired by Activision, supposedly because the two were (allegedly) having dealings with Electronic Arts. A month later, the men sued their former employer for $125 million in royalties, claiming they were owed them from sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Activision, in turn, countersued, <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106358-Update-Activision-Claims-EA-Tried-to-Drink-Its-Infinity-Ward-Milkshake>including Electronic Arts in the suit and demanding $400 million, claiming "that EA colluded with Creative Artists Agency to hire the duo away from Infinity Ward."

Meanwhile, West and Zampella have since founded a new studio - Respawn Entertainment - hired over 60 new employees, and signed a deal to work with EA.

Speaking to Forbes, Zampella spoke a little about the trial date, saying "I'm really looking forward to having our day in court."

Source: Forbes via <a href=http://gamepolitics.com/2011/09/12/west-and-zampella-v-activision-gets-trial-date>GamePolitics

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[Nikolaz72]

Well it would be a right slap in the face to Activision if they loose the right to make Call of Duty. Then again, they can just call it Black Ops or something like that.

 

[Low Key]

I wonder how long they'll delay the preceding? That always seems to happen when hundreds of million dollars is on the line. It will happen from West and Zampella's side. Maybe they'll delay it enough to coincide with the release of whatever game they are making to splash their names everywhere. That tactic has already helped BF3's cause since IW isn't really IW anymore.

 

[5t3v0]

Hey, thats a day after my birthday! (2 days after aproximately if you count time zone differences) My wish is for bobby kotick to have his big fat money grabbing nose rubbed in it. West and zempella... Well... Enemy of my enemy is my friend I guess... (yes, I know I just stole that from CoD because I only recently learned of its reference... but am still unsure what it actually is... Can someone shed some light on that?)

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Here's an idea...why not just pay West/Zampella like you promised to, and then just get Kotick and Riccitello to have a sumo match for the rest of it.

It'd probably have a lot more dignity than this farce.

 

[Revolutionary]

God i hope respawn makes something OTHER than an FPS! Sure am bored of the genre.

Yeah and I hope that they win the case so they have some Money to back it up.

 

[Dalek Caan]

This is still going on? I remember doing a report on this last year for PLC. I hope West and Zampella do well though.

 

[yuval152]

Honestly, if I were these two, I'd just shrug it off. Given MW2's reputation amongst PC gamers I wouldn't want my name tied to it any more than it has to be.

First thing that came in my mind,so basically QFT.

 

[Hungry Donner]

While I don't care about the franchise I am interested to see how this turns out - but I doubt it will be resolved any time soon.

God i hope respawn makes something OTHER than an FPS! Sure am bored of the genre.

Shooters are one of the few genres that are OK on a console, if gamers would stop buying the crap then they would stop making it.

Funny that, before the last generation, they were nearly non-existent on consoles.

 

[Dogstile]

Honestly, if I were these two, I'd just shrug it off. Given MW2's reputation amongst PC gamers I wouldn't want my name tied to it any more than it has to be.

They spent a year of their life making it. Its not something you just bury, it's not hated enough for that.

 

[teh_Canape]

is it bad that this is the first thing that came to mind when I read the title?

 

[Therumancer]

As the gaming industry gets bigger and bigger and more and more money is involved, I'm waiting for people to start having mysterious accidents and such. Plane and car crashes, and the classic "victim of random gang violence" that is common in certain aspects of the music industry.

Kind of morbid, but when your looking at $125 million involved, and the simple fact that Bobby is already willing to send thugs in to oust people (as happened earlier in this case), one has to wonder how long it will be before guys like Bobby Kotick comes to the realization that it will be cheaper to hire an assasin, and then say nice things at their funeral. Similar to how after some rap star or whatever has a dispute with their label and then winds up being executed outside an awards show or whatever due to a "drug dispute" or due to "gang violence" which eventually makes you go "huh" when you later find out that the dude in question was a straight A student from the 'burbs, who was putting on an act.

Not saying I want to see it happen, so much as I'm surprised it hasn't.

 

[Nedoras]

is it bad that this is the first thing that came to mind when I read the title?

Nope, that coming to mind is completely natural. =)
Well at least all of this will finally end...hopefully anyway.

 

[Jonny49]

*Waves West and Zampella flag*

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

I have a feeling this is going to get really messy, but I hope that they will just settle this and not drag it out. I know Activision can afford it, but I'd imagine if they did drag it out, it wouldn't look good for them.

I hope that West and Zampella win this and do well.