COD creators "betrayed" me - Kotick

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 27 September, 2010

"We didn't have any choice!"

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has defended his decision to fire Call of Duty creators Vince Zampella and Jason West, insisting: "We didn't have any choice!"

Ex-Infinity Ward bosses Zampella and West were fired amid a high profile lawsuit that eventually led to the formation of Respawn Entertainment.

The newly created developer signed with Kotick's bitter rival EA, and work on a new game has begun.

"It shook my belief in two specific people, who were my friends," Kotick told Edge.

"The frustrating thing about that is, the stuff that these guys did, I never would have expected them to do. We're a public company, we've got ethics obligations, and the things they did were... I would go to jail if I did them.

"You can't use the company and the company's assets for your own personal benefit, and you can't use the leverage that you might have for personal benefit – you're not allowed to do that! And so we didn't have any choice."

Kotick revealed he knew Infinity Ward staff would leave en masse following the split, but insisted all will be fine in the end.

"There's 70 really talented people at Infinity Ward who are focused and engaged – and in the last six months, we've had something like 5000 resumes, so it's not like there's a shortage of interest in working there.

"It's one of those things where you get personally disappointed in people you trust and call friends. When you're betrayed by your friends, what do you do?"

Activision is yet to reveal what game Infinity Ward will create next, but the internet reckons it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (72) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • HisDudness #1 2 years ago

    Another one?! Please just publish the interview and be done with it. Stop spamming these quotes.

  • Iain815 #2 2 years ago

    I'm not going to bother reading the article, just the name Kotick makes me yell CUNT.

  • Goodfella #3 2 years ago

    The C word has lost all shock value now, thanks to Bobby.

  • DoctorFouad #4 2 years ago

    LOL

  • TopKatt #5 2 years ago

    Next article wil be up in 5 minutes:

    "Fuck the lot of you, you're all a bunch of cunts, FUCK ALL OF YOU!" - Kotick

  • Liam64 #6 2 years ago

    We get it, you bought a copy of Edge.

  • Fab4 #7 2 years ago

    "I'm talkin' about friendship. I'm talkin' about character. I'm talkin' about - hell. Leo, I ain't embarrassed to use the word - I'm talkin' about ethics."

  • LukehMuse #8 2 years ago

    I can't wait to hear Bobby Kotick criticise the manner in which his mother gave birth to him in a few minutes time. "She had deadlines to give birth and she didn't meet them. Quite frankly it was downhill from there."
    Edited by LukehMuse at 27/09/10 @ 12:23

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #9 2 years ago

    Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

  • lucky_jim #10 2 years ago

    This really is very cheap, EG. One story would have been sufficient.

  • ChthonicEcho #11 2 years ago

    Every time I see a bunch of articles that hardly classify as news (or are very clearly written as flame bait) I imagine the entire EG staff, giggling wildly as they read the comments section.

    I should've become a journalist.

  • Fab4 #12 2 years ago

    The next one will be "I was buggered by the Pope"...just to keep it topical ;)

  • darkmorgado #13 2 years ago

    We're a public company, we've got ethics obligations

    You mean like not paying workers the money you promised and then holding them to ransom with it?

  • captain_Carl #14 2 years ago

    Seriously EG...We get it...He's a cunt. The evidence is substantial.

  • Riggers #15 2 years ago

    "The C word has lost all shock value now, thanks to Bobby."

    We could have the K word -

    "That guy's a complete and utter Kotick"

  • M_of_the_sys #16 2 years ago

    *buys a copy of Edge*

  • Woffls #17 2 years ago

    News articles about Bobby Kotick will continue to be published for as long as we click, read and comment on them.

  • Mkwone #18 2 years ago

    5000 resumes?

    I wonder how many are from would be journalists trying to get the inside scoop.

  • actionfitz #19 2 years ago

    "We didn't have any choice!"

    Because you're a cunt and it's in your nature?
    like the fable about The Scorpion and the Frog
    [link url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog
    ]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpio...[/link]

    "It shook my belief in two specific people, who were my friends," Kotick told Edge.

    One would have thought mega successful CEO's didn't have friends, just colleagues or employees.
    It's nice that he can call you a friend when you make him hundreds of millions of dollars, but when you want to direct your own career (ie take a break from churning out yearly CoD's), you are an asset who must be subordinate or face your wrath...

    "You can't use the company and the company's assets for your own personal benefit, and you can't use the leverage that you might have for personal benefit – you're not allowed to do that! And so we didn't have any choice."

    You fucking what??!
    so withholding your employees wages/bonuses hostage for fear they might jump ship... withholding royalty payments until they agree to work on the game you want... that isn't using "the leverage that you might have for personal benefit"?
    go fuck yourself you twofaced smarmy trolling cunt.

    "Kotick revealed he knew Infinity Ward staff would leave en masse following the split, but insisted all will be fine in the end."

    "There's 70 really talented people at Infinity Ward who are focused and engaged – and in the last six months, we've had something like 5000 resumes, so it's not like there's a shortage of interest in working there.

    because he knows he can just throw money at the problem, and anyone who is deemed not to be "focused and engaged" enough can be axed and replaced, because people are just like cattle aren't we Bobby? :/
    and people without jobs need money so... 5000 applications it is!

    "It's one of those things where you get personally disappointed in people you trust and call friends. When you're betrayed by your friends, what do you do?"

    I wonder how 'personally disappointed' the people having to sue you to get paid for the work they did are Bob...
    get fucked.

    Activision is yet to reveal what game Infinity Ward will create next, but the internet reckons it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

    Orly?
    :o
    hehe.

  • CrispyXUK64 #20 2 years ago

    EG are spamming themselves?

  • Retro_ #21 2 years ago

    Old Bobby K talks about 'Obligations' far to much to be a friend, personally, I think he shafted I.W. up the @rse and withheld royalties, now that I do believe.

  • el_pollo_diablo #22 2 years ago

    @eurogamer

    I'm not being funny but I hope you're paying edge magazine for the three news items in a row you've ripped directly from it's pages.

    Print is in trouble, and you're not really helping.

  • NimbusTLD #23 2 years ago

    My curious side really wants time to fast forward to when Bobby, Jason or Vince can publicly tell the real truth about what happened!

  • kentmonkey #24 2 years ago

    I want Wesley's job. It seems to revolve around taking a magazine article and making each paragraph a 'news' story.

    The next three article headlines I expect to read are:

    "The sales charts for the week have arrived"
    followed by
    "HALO Reach is no longer on top"
    and then followed by
    "I'll announce the game that is number one as soon as I have worked my way up the list".

    The winner then won't be announced because a copy of GamesTM will have arrived.
    Edited by kentmonkey at 27/09/10 @ 12:57

  • FreakyZoid #25 2 years ago

    > I should've become a journalist.

    So should Wesley Yin-Poole

  • Eraser #26 2 years ago

    Ok, enough with the Bobby Kotick nonsense. He's not that interesting anyway.

  • BabyJesus #27 2 years ago

    Ha I bet Bobbys PR Team hate him more than any gamers do.

  • Ryboy #28 2 years ago

    You're still a cunt.

  • Sunworship #29 2 years ago

    @CthonicEcho
    "I should've become a journalist."

    What does that have to do with working at EG?

  • Bigglesworth #30 2 years ago

    For fuck's sake Wesley, put down your copy of Edge and do some real work.

  • dsmx #31 2 years ago

    He must mean betrayed as in refused to do a yearly MW.

  • Toothball #32 2 years ago

    Looks like Eurogamer are becoming the new Activision, releasing endless updates to the same franchise (story), until everyone is so sick of it that they begin to wish it had never happened in the first place. Good luck guys!

  • darleysam #33 2 years ago

    ".. he sobbed, before blowing his nose on a $100 note, swan feathers lining the corners of his mouth."

  • kangarootoo #34 2 years ago

    I have a question.

    I know Activision treated a whole bunch of employees badly including Vince Zampella and Jason West, but I want to know what they actually did. What is the thing that he is referring to, that if he did would send him to jail?

  • Bigglesworth #35 2 years ago

    @kanga
    I beleive they were accused of having clandestine meetings with other publishers - presumably to tout around the Call Of Duty IP.

  • kangarootoo #36 2 years ago

    @Bigglesworth

    Thanks.

    Do they own the COD IP, or do Activision?

  • dsmx #37 2 years ago

    Activision own the Modern Warfare but I believe they don't own the rights to Call of Duty.

  • Bigglesworth #38 2 years ago

    Actually dsmx I thought it was the other way around - as the publisher and the people who (most of the time) paid out for its development, Acti would own the IP, and I think Zampella and West are suing for ownership of the Modern Warfare series?

    To be honest its obviously dodgy in some way, since on the face of it the ownership of the IP clearly dictates whether the IW pair had any right to approach other companies with it.
    Edited by Bigglesworth at 27/09/10 @ 13:26

  • Shikasama #39 2 years ago

    This comments thread (and all the other ones around this story) are classic examples of gamer thinking.

    This was always an argument between 3 rich, corporate pricks. The only difference between them was that 2 of them were 'games designers' and so the people who buy games side with them because they cling onto this idea that games companies are still ran out of peoples bedrooms. In fact, it was an argument between 3 businessmen about business things and each one trying to get away with as much as possible, which happens in business.

    I'm just as willing to believe Kotick as I am West and Zampella. That is to say, I don't believe any of them.

  • Bigglesworth #40 2 years ago

    Wikipedia has a summary of the situation.

  • djed #41 2 years ago

    Basically he calls them liars, cheats, traitors and criminals.

    Yeah, I wouldn't put him up as a reference on my CV.

  • Widge #42 2 years ago

    Activision to buy Edge Games

  • RobTheBuilder #43 2 years ago

    Can we just change the headline to: "Bobby Kotick Continues to be Whiny Dickhead" ?

  • urban #44 2 years ago

    do shut the fuck up.

  • Haloboy #45 2 years ago

    I eagerly await the 'I just put my bin out and you'd never believe it, Bobby Kotick was not one of the bin men!' article Wesley.

    Jesus once EG gets caught on a mudslide it takes us all with it. Hold on to something!

  • ozzzy189 #46 2 years ago

    I'm going to be a troll for the first time ever and write the same thing in all the booby kotick stories, and even use some swearing words too.
    Fuck off you fat cunt, no one likes you or even gives a fucking shit what you say.

  • darkmorgado #47 2 years ago

    I beleive they were accused of having clandestine meetings with other publishers

    Correct, though I feel it should be pointed out that these meetings were held at a time when Infinity Ward's exclusivity contract with Activision was nearly up, so it was only natural that they would explore other opportunities.

  • kangarootoo #48 2 years ago

    @Bigglesworth

    Thanks for the link.

    From that link.
    " This was revealed to be the reason behind the firings when West and Zampella filed a lawsuit against Activision on March 4, 2010 over "substantial royalty payments" that Activision failed to pay them in the weeks leading up to their firing. According to their attorney Robert Schwartz, Activision had hired lawyers to investigate West and Zampella on charges of insubordination and breaches of contract in February, which culminated in their dismissal."

    So breach of contract, which regardless of whatever nastiness Activision had gotten up to, is a firing offense in most cases.


    @Shikasama

    That was exactly where my thinking was heading. The only direct response I had seen in this thread to the sacking was along the lines of "so withholding your employees wages/bonuses... isn't using "the leverage that you might have for personal benefit"?".

    And I'm sat there thinking "maybe every one of these very rich business men has been naughty, in different ways".

  • kangarootoo #49 2 years ago

    @darkmorgado

    "these meetings were held at a time when Infinity Ward's exclusivity contract with Activision was nearly up, so it was only natural that they would explore other opportunities."

    Well not quite. Until your contract expires, you are still under contract (whatever your line of work). If their contract said "you can't meet with other publishers to discuss working with them", then that is that really.

  • john_silence #50 2 years ago

    "When you're betrayed by your friends, what do you do?"
    You FIRE THEM! And KICK THEM IN THE NUTS!

  • darkmorgado #51 2 years ago

    I'm pretty sure there is employment law protecting someone from being prevented from seeking alternative employment though Kanga, and the law would override any contractual obligation.

    In short, the contract is worth sh*t if it isn't lawful.

  • john_silence #52 2 years ago

    Then SPAM the news headlines about how your former friends THEY SUCK!

  • kangarootoo #53 2 years ago

    @darkmorgado

    Well that is a question I'd like to know the answer to.

    Of course a contract can't stop you seeking other work, but it can make specific references to competitor companies, and in this case projects currently in development. Some contracts even go so far as to say you can't work for a competitor for 3 months, and they are enforceable (I've signed at least one in my time I'm sure).

    I don't think the accusation is that they went for an interview at Toys'R'Us. The accusation is that they discussed CoD:MW in meetings with competitor publishers, whilst CoD:MW was in development, with a view to taking the CoD IP elsewhere. That is pretty specific, and I bet almost all publishers have similar contracts.

  • kangarootoo #54 2 years ago

    @john_silence

    Um, I'm not sure Bobby Kotick is responsible for the spamming here. Not saying he is Father Xmas, but lets not lose our heads.

  • john_silence #55 2 years ago

    I'm aware Bobby Kotick isn't responsible for EG's editorial policy, thank you :D

  • arcam #56 2 years ago

    A bunch of rich people fight over money.

    There's no-one worth cheering for here.

  • TopKatt #57 2 years ago

    We really need some talented indie developer to make a zombie style game but with Bobby as the main character and zombies replaced by rabid gamers yelling "Cunt!" as Bobby chainsaws them to death, never once losing that smarmy smile.

  • RobTheBuilder #58 2 years ago

    TopKatt - Sounds like the DC Sega game where you took over the running of Sega... only more evil and Koticky.
    Maybe it could be a racing game and be developed by Sumo.

    I call it Super Asshole Kart.

  • uknortherner2000 #59 2 years ago

    Just in from Edge... Er, Eurogamer:

    Kotick: "God's a slacker!"
    Criticises God's 6-day creationist policy and taking the seventh day off. Says, "I could've created the world in five days, and brought a new one out every week!"
    Edited by uknortherner2000 at 27/09/10 @ 15:20

  • T4RG4 #60 2 years ago

    "Activision is yet to reveal what game Infinity Ward will create next, but the internet reckons it's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3."

    I did actually laugh at that. I feel bad.

  • IamTheElderScrolls #61 2 years ago

    You tell em' Bobby..

  • Soton4084 #62 2 years ago

    The more this idiot says, the more inclined I am NOT to buy Activision games. This guy is a PR disaster!

  • photoboy #63 2 years ago

    "You can't use the company and the company's assets to make non-COD games, and you can't use the leverage that you might have to make non-COD games– you're not allowed to do that!"

    Fixed that for you Bobby.

  • Gambit1977 #64 2 years ago

    Boohoo!
    What a cock!

    Next week, Hitler complains about Jews bullying him.

  • White_Waffle #65 2 years ago

    Mr. Robert Kotick, doing multi million dollar business deciscions.... Obviously a sensitive person, easily manipulated by his friends. A helpful soul who gets easily exploited by his business partners. He is just too trusting.... Oh well... Hmmm... something... something is not right here.... hmmmm. *rolls eyes*

  • Iain815 #66 2 years ago

    Don't worry Wesley, I still love you.

    And I'll still do that thing you like in bed.

  • Dave #67 2 years ago

    Somehow I'm thinking about Michael Scott from The Office while reading this...

  • legendarytomuk #68 2 years ago

    "It shook my belief in two specific people, who were my friends," Kotick

    Kotick has friends?

  • Lord_Gremlin #69 2 years ago

    So what they did exactly? Spit it out, Kotick, since you want to talk about it to the public.

  • Agiel7 #70 2 years ago

    "My friends" is a very interesting choice of words.

    Saying they betrayed you is like saying Zampella and West are Lando Calrissian post heel face turn and will eventually pilot the Millennium Falcon to blow up the Death Star that is the Activision office.

  • whoyouknow #71 2 years ago

    Can we take it as read that Kotick's a tosser and only be updated when that status changes?

  • GaryStew1980 #72 2 years ago

    This guy actually can't spend a day out of the press can he? Fair play he keeps the company name out there too. IW have a lot to live up to if it is indeed MW3 they are making, love or hate the series you cant argue with the sales figures and it will be interesting to see if they can keep up with MW and MW2. Treyarch games never sell quite as well so i wonder will the new IW ones.