Kotick Paints Black and White Picture of Infinity Ward Firings
- Thread starter MikeWehner
- Start date
A hollywood movie isn't what tainted the brand. The asshole 12 year old swearing and using racial/prejudice slurs incessantly over their mics tainted the brand. This is the reason I haven't owned a CoD game since MW2.MikeWehner said:
Bobby, Bobby... You had been quiet for so long, I almost forgot why people hated you that much...
Thanks for the reminder.
No, that is not something anyone would have done. That is something a Bond villain would have done...
Thanks for the reminder.
You mean the millions of dollars from bonus and royalties you promised? Of course not, everyone knows you never deliver those...MikeWehner said:
There is no such a thing as "stealing employees"; they are not slaves. Its called brain drain, and if you want to avoid it, you should care about incentives for people not to leave.MikeWehner said:
You mean breaching contract by keeping payment hostage? Or locking them out of their office without notice? With armed guards? Or sending a team to hack their computers to find incriminating proofs and naming it "Project Icebreaker"?Traun said:
No, that is not something anyone would have done. That is something a Bond villain would have done...
"...but first, you hire a private investigator to try and dig up dirt on them. Then, you withhold their royalties. Then you interrogate their employees. Only then do you fire them.
And then, when the case gets to court, you flip lawyers constantly and try to obfuscate the process, eventually resulting in you settling the case out of court because you realized you looked like the bad guy."
Bobby Kotick, ladies and gentlemen. The only reason I don't give him more flack is because he just whores franchises out. He doesn't drag series/developers out back and shoot them in the head like Riccitello.
If you look into the details of what really happened you'll see that Activision was unhappy with the contracts they negotiated, not just bonus structure but the amount of control that Infinity Ward had over the series with their contracts at the time, and decided to weasel their way out of it.
Some of the dirties pool I've seen in this industry, and that is saying something.
EDIT: Just in case anyone doesn't think that Activision was in the wrong here, just look at the settlement. While the settlement amount will never be made public it was likely for a LOT of cash. Activision cared much more about the control of the IP than they did the bonuses.
Some of the dirties pool I've seen in this industry, and that is saying something.
EDIT: Just in case anyone doesn't think that Activision was in the wrong here, just look at the settlement. While the settlement amount will never be made public it was likely for a LOT of cash. Activision cared much more about the control of the IP than they did the bonuses.
The Resident Evil movies consistently make three times their budget back. They're phenomenal successes. And I for one enjoy them quite a bit.Diablo1099 said:
I don't know if it'd still be considered a "Good" Movie, just at this point, it's just Weird Fan Fiction to me, but to each their own.Yagami_Kira said:
My other examples stand up though.
Did you know one of the major pieces of evidence that Activision submitted was a dinner bill involvin top EA executives and West and Zampella that they charged to Activisions accounts? Did you also know they outright lied about where they were at the time when pressed about it?fix-the-spade said:
Links or it didn't happen...shintakie10 said:
#Edit: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-23-activision-vs-vince-zampella-and-jason-west-inside-the-game-industry-trial-of-the-decade
This is the best write up I've found of the events leading up to the settlement, interestingly, Michael Pachter called it first!
By Fighting game movies, I was also including Tekken (Said to be SO bad Namco made a CGI Tekken because of it!) and The King of Fighters.cursedseishi said:
Look, I get what you are trying to say, but at the end of the day, a lot of Video Game Related Movies are bad. Some REALLY Bad. Others so Bad it's Good (Like Street Fighter)
I'm just kinda glad we aren't getting a over-blown billion dollar COD Movie to add to the list.
If my employees tried to "break their contracts, keep the money you gave them and steal 40 employees"- which is a big if, and shame on you if you're taking a statement like that at face value- yes, I might well fire them.
I wouldn't investigate them, subject them to police-style interrogations, and try to ruin them financially and professionally; that might be considered a bit much.
I wouldn't investigate them, subject them to police-style interrogations, and try to ruin them financially and professionally; that might be considered a bit much.
Oh Kotick. What a saint. He's doing his very best to keep his PR people employeed by keeping them busy trying to clean up all the stupid things he says.
Funny, though, since most of the research I read up on was a lot of questionable, unethical, and illegal activities occurred on Activision's side of the equation... unless hiring hackers to try and dig up reasons to fire someone suddenly became an okay thing to do when I wasn't looking.
Also, the Call of Duty brand was "tainted" a long time ago.
Funny, though, since most of the research I read up on was a lot of questionable, unethical, and illegal activities occurred on Activision's side of the equation... unless hiring hackers to try and dig up reasons to fire someone suddenly became an okay thing to do when I wasn't looking.
Also, the Call of Duty brand was "tainted" a long time ago.
Depends on the type of employes. If they are lower level management and their jobs can be easily replaced, then sure, you fire them.
But if those 2 executives are HUUUUGGGEEE revenue creators, then you do what it takes to keep their loyalty. Ok, so maybe they are flirting with the enemy, and you know they are not selling trade secrets, but you do the conversation is about IP control, bonus %'s and team perks.
So you tell them, hey guys, "I know your current contract is is nearly up, your lusting after the grass on the other side of the fence, and we all know that moving is a hassle. What would it take to make that other grass go away?" and you renegotiate from there.
From the sounds of West & Zambella, they wanted to try new IP's and stopped wanting to clone the same game every year. I guess Kotick couldn't understand that; "What.. creative people wanting to be creative.. FUCK THAT NOISE!!, We're taking them down... operation Icebreak is now in effect..."
Yeah this is bullshit. From what I recall, what happened was that they were offered jobs from EA Games and meeting with them to discuss it and Robert used it as an excuse to fire them so Activision wouldn't have to pay them half the money they owed them and then there's the game Activision played with their employees, what was that Robert I forget OH WAIT now I remember it was your own little company wide version of Last Man Standing!
All that happened is that Robert Kotick got paranoid and drove he's own employees into the hands of EA Games. If you don't want your people quitting I'd suggest paying them for their work. People tend to be pissed off when you don't for some weird and crazy reason! What I find annoying is that this whole incident was clearly just a matter of the rivalry that Activision and EA Games have. It wasn't that they might quit but that EA Games were the other company offering them the job.
I mean EA Games tries to offer two of their biggest employees a job so Robert goes and fires them thus allowing EA Games to hire them without having to get them to break their contracts or having to wait till the contracts end. Then when said employees sue them for firing them without paying them based on something that might have happened Activision goes and sues the employees for doing something that Activison fired them for before they could even do it? Oh that went well especially when Activision also sued EA Games for acting like a games company and hiring people.
I mean what is a court of law going to tell EA Games? Your not allowed to hire ex-Activision employees? Because given Activision's track record pretty soon that's going to be anyone who wants to work in gaming.
All that happened is that Robert Kotick got paranoid and drove he's own employees into the hands of EA Games. If you don't want your people quitting I'd suggest paying them for their work. People tend to be pissed off when you don't for some weird and crazy reason! What I find annoying is that this whole incident was clearly just a matter of the rivalry that Activision and EA Games have. It wasn't that they might quit but that EA Games were the other company offering them the job.
I mean EA Games tries to offer two of their biggest employees a job so Robert goes and fires them thus allowing EA Games to hire them without having to get them to break their contracts or having to wait till the contracts end. Then when said employees sue them for firing them without paying them based on something that might have happened Activision goes and sues the employees for doing something that Activison fired them for before they could even do it? Oh that went well especially when Activision also sued EA Games for acting like a games company and hiring people.
I mean what is a court of law going to tell EA Games? Your not allowed to hire ex-Activision employees? Because given Activision's track record pretty soon that's going to be anyone who wants to work in gaming.
