[Update] Activision Claims EA Tried to Drink Its Infinity Ward Milkshake

[Soviet Heavy]

Thats all I have to say

 

[vxicepickxv]

Sounds like a little Tasmanian devil move from Activision to me.

 

[HentMas]

okokokok...
let me see if i got this straight
Activision fails to pay bonuses to Infinity Ward employees, fire the two main guys in the process because they start to complain, wait for CoD:BO to get the "Billionary" achievement and THEN they sue EA for "conspiracy"?

does anyone else things this "timing" seems a little off???

also... this smells awfully like a bad PR stunt, i swear if i didnt followed the news here on the escapist the first thing i would had thought would had being "Damn... the main guys in MW2 are such jercks for conspiring agains their former bosses"

 

[HentMas]

Update: EA has responded to Activision's amendment by saying that it's all true. Just kidding. In a statement to the LA Times, EA spokesman Jeff Brown wrote: "This is a PR play filled with pettiness and deliberate misdirection. Activision wants to hide the fact that they have no credible response to the claim of two artists who were fired and now just want to get paid for their work." I say they just settle the dispute with a multiplayer game of Doom II [http://store.steampowered.com/app/2300/]. Shotguns and rockets make everything better.

Okay I totally believe you EA, because you guys aren't just as scummy as Activision.

I like the shotguns and rockets idea, but I say we make them all play with live ammo.

well at least the king of hell (Kotick) doesnt work for EA, so i might be a little more inclined in roothing for them also, they have published a lot of great games latelly, instead of Activision wich seem to focus on COD/WOW in this days

 

[Josh123914]

okokokok...
let me see if i got this straight
Activision fails to pay bonuses to Infinity Ward employees, fire the two main guys in the process because they start to complain, wait for CoD:BO to get the "Billionary" achievement and THEN they sue EA for "conspiracy"?

does anyone else things this "timing" seems a little off???

also... this smells awfully like a bad PR stunt, i swear if i didnt followed the news here on the escapist the first thing i would had thought would had being "Damn... the main guys in MW2 are such jercks for conspiring agains their former bosses"

yeah, though since infinity ward is dead, wh is going to develop the next shooter equivalent to madde-sorry, Call of Duty game?

 

[asinann]

Wait, am I missing something, or did nothing happen against the law here?

As far as I know, Activision doesn't own its employees, they can ride in whoever's private jet they want.

Some contracts actually prevent this kind of thing. The best example of this are sports contracts. A player from team A isn't allowed to come over to the Team B's owner's house on the owners private plane for a private BBQ. It's called tampering and in the end the only ones that can be tagged for it are the ones doing the tampering, not the people tampered with.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Wait, am I missing something, or did nothing happen against the law here?

As far as I know, Activision doesn't own its employees, they can ride in whoever's private jet they want.

Some contracts actually prevent this kind of thing. The best example of this are sports contracts. A player from team A isn't allowed to come over to the Team B's owner's house on the owners private plane for a private BBQ. It's called tampering and in the end the only ones that can be tagged for it are the ones doing the tampering, not the people tampered with.

Unless the people being tampered with work with the ones doing the tampering to breach the contract.
Then it's called "Conspiracy".

 

[asinann]

Wait, am I missing something, or did nothing happen against the law here?

As far as I know, Activision doesn't own its employees, they can ride in whoever's private jet they want.

Some contracts actually prevent this kind of thing. The best example of this are sports contracts. A player from team A isn't allowed to come over to the Team B's owner's house on the owners private plane for a private BBQ. It's called tampering and in the end the only ones that can be tagged for it are the ones doing the tampering, not the people tampered with.

Unless the people being tampered with work with the ones doing the tampering to breach the contract.
Then it's called "Conspiracy".

Conspiracy is the hardest thing on earth to prove, for it to be conspiracy there has to be foreknowledge and intent. It is nearly impossible to prove intent.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Conspiracy is the hardest thing on earth to prove, for it to be conspiracy there has to be foreknowledge and intent. It is nearly impossible to prove intent.

Be that as it may, that's the kind of offense Activision is planning to throw at them in court by legally dragging EA into this.

Chances are, conspiracy will not be definitively proven (thanks "Reasonable Doubt!") but both sides could face stiff fines in addition to the likely-insane recompense Activision is asking for.

Surely, Activision's lawyers must be aware of these facts; the question is in how much evidence do they really have.

 

[Fusioncode9]

Black Ops outsold Modern Warfare 2, not to mention that it is a much better game. Infinity Ward doesn't give a shit about their community but Treyarch actually does.

 

[HentMas]

okokokok...
let me see if i got this straight
Activision fails to pay bonuses to Infinity Ward employees, fire the two main guys in the process because they start to complain, wait for CoD:BO to get the "Billionary" achievement and THEN they sue EA for "conspiracy"?

does anyone else things this "timing" seems a little off???

also... this smells awfully like a bad PR stunt, i swear if i didnt followed the news here on the escapist the first thing i would had thought would had being "Damn... the main guys in MW2 are such jercks for conspiring agains their former bosses"

yeah, though since infinity ward is dead, wh is going to develop the next shooter equivalent to madde-sorry, Call of Duty game?

i thought about that, in the end they are going to settle, as i see this they just did it to "open negotiations" with Zapela and the other guy, and try to take some of the "backlash" off the last legal action, hoping to convince the IW guys to come back is going to cost them

 

[The Hairminator]

I love how EA suddenly became the good guys.

 

[SimuLord]

Activision's milkshake brings all the corporations to the yard.

 

[Vault boy Eddie]

Activision is starting to sound like the North Korean media more and more each day.

 

[Berethond]

Wait, am I missing something, or did nothing happen against the law here?

As far as I know, Activision doesn't own its employees, they can ride in whoever's private jet they want.

ehmmm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortious_interference. In other words if Activion have real evidence they then they are screwed.

Yes but that's British case law, not American.

 

[Goaticus]

Black Ops outsold Modern Warfare 2, not to mention that it is a much better game. Infinity Ward doesn't give a shit about their community but Treyarch actually does.

Alright first off, do you really think Infinity Ward wanted to abandon it's community? More likely, Activision stopped any anti-cheater or anti-boosting to encourage people to buy Black Ops.

Second, Black Ops was made like 9 months, it looks graphically awful and the sound quality / gun textures look abysmal.

Third, success isn't a measurement of how good you are. It's a measurement of how stupid your demographic is. Look at how successful World of Warcraft has been, and the people who "experience" the game to the fullest(raid, group up, know how to play, etc) is like, less than 10% of the total people who play it.

In this instance, CoD: MW2 basically sold Black Ops, by legacy. Almost all my friends who bought Black Ops and tried to get me to hop on the Black Cocks bandwagon, and admitted from a few weeks or a few months later how incredibly bad the game is. Know why it took so long? Because most people who game aren't gamers, they're children or grown ass men children. They need to justify that 60 bucks spent.

Activision is pure evil, I don't care if they are legally in the right, they rape Infinity Ward's hard work and make me dislike videogames.

 

[Albino Boo]

Wait, am I missing something, or did nothing happen against the law here?

As far as I know, Activision doesn't own its employees, they can ride in whoever's private jet they want.

ehmmm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortious_interference. In other words if Activion have real evidence they then they are screwed.

Yes but that's British case law, not American.

I don't were to start, your either cant comprehend a short article or you ignorant of the history of your own legal system. The 2/3 of the cases are form before the revolution and therefore form part of the bases if the US legal system. Your legal system is based on English common law.

 

[SNIPERFOX ft. Harry P.Ness]

settle it over a game of CoD

 

[samsonguy920]

Sorry to break the hate-boner train but, uh have we actually consider what if Activision is right? Breach of corporate contract and conspiracy to undermine are pretty serious, and if Activision can prove its case in court, then... that's pretty big.

Of course, that's an if. This will be decided in a court of law where we will hopefully learn the whole story, not on an internet message board by angry teenagers who care more about "their side" winning than who is legally in the right.

It's entirely possible that EA Zampella and West ARE guilty (or that they aren't, also as likely), and that they were in fact doing something wrong against Activision. What is more important, a law being served or the Big Bad Publisher not getting a payout?

I just don't think that Activision would be deepening its bluff if it wasn't sure it had a case. If it didn't have a case then they'd almost certainly be trying to settle out of court.

It is all about the burden of proof. Activision has to show it in their cross-complaint.
Of course Activision v Respawn Entertainment is one thing, but getting EA into the mix is actually gonna make it harder for Activision.

The only people to profit from all this are the lawyers...

Seriously now...the Call of Duty brand name has been established and its not going anywhere regardless of who is developing it. Its an unstoppable cash cow...its the "Nike" of videogames.

Lawyers are the only people to profit from any lawsuits. That's one reason I never bother to hop aboard a class action train. There's no point.

Call of Duty: Just Keep Running.

 

[samsonguy920]

Well at least the King of Hell (Kotick) doesnt work for EA, so I might be a little more inclined in rooting for them also. They have published a lot of great games lately, instead of Activision which seems to focus on COD/WOWGuitar Hero in this days

Fixed that for you. The King of Hell has tunnel vision on CoD and GH only. He leaves WoW to Blizzard and merely enjoys his cut of the profits off of there.
And I wouldn't hold EA up too high, they did let the latest Medal of Honor get muddied in unnecessary controversy which did affect its sales(Though that more has to do with DICE for the multiplayer). When you also take into consideration that they took everything that made MoH unique and threw it out in an attempt to try to make it better than CoD, that also screwed things up.