EA slams Activision's "PR play"

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 22 December, 2010

$400m damages claim "filled with pettiness".

Electronic Arts has dismissed Activision's attempt to seek a whopping $400 million in damages over the sacking of ex-Infinity Ward stars Vince Zampella and Jason West as nothing more than a "PR play".

Last night it emerged that Activision had filed suit against Electronic Arts seeking $400 million in damages as part of its ongoing litigation against the two former Infinity Ward executives.

Activision alleges EA "intentionally interfered with contracts, engaged in unfair competition, and aided and abetted breaches of fiduciary duty by the executives".

Responding to the suit, EA spokesman Jeff Brown told the Los Angeles Times: "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."

West and Zampella have always insisted the allegations were "false and outrageous".

After being fired by Activision bosses at the start of the year, the pair set up Respawn Entertainment and signed a deal with Electronic Arts. According to Activision, the studio poached around 40 former Infinity Ward employees in the process.

The court will decide in January if EA is to be added as a cross-defendant in the West/Zampella countersuit. The trial date between Jason West, Vince Zampella, and the Infinity Ward Employee Group vs. Activision is currently set for 23rd May 2011.

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 (44) Latest comment 1 year ago

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

  • Optimaximal #1 1 year ago

    Fuck you Bobby Kotick!

  • CaptainQuint #2 1 year ago

    Aww man, this is gonna go on and on an on. This shit is great for websites who struggle during slow news days.
    Edited by CaptainQuint at 22/12/10 @ 09:26

  • Rack #3 1 year ago

    As the first post shows, there's no point in Activision even bothering in PR any more, they've a worse rep than hell.
    Edited by Rack at 22/12/10 @ 08:53

  • Segnit #4 1 year ago

    Today is all delicious goodness full of win and it's not even Christmas yet :D

  • Shikasama #5 1 year ago

    It's funny watching people on the internet picking sides in a case between multi millionairs that couldn't give a shit about you past your next 40 quid and are all equally as dickish as each other.

  • Segnit #6 1 year ago

    Hey Shikasama, there is nothing wrong about finding entertainment in a corporate slogging match. Go EA!

  • riceNpea #7 1 year ago

    next week Kotick to sue God for allowing free will

  • Shikasama #8 1 year ago

    Segnit - Oh aye, I find it highly entertaining, I just don't understand why people 'support' West and Zampella or EA when it is clear (if you have been keeping up to date with thigns) that they are all just as bad as each other. And if EA did indeed poach top executives and encouraged them to break contract Activision have every right to sue them.

    Wether it holds up or not is a question for a judge.

  • Segnit #9 1 year ago

    Well obviously I don't know if EA or Jason/Zampella are innocent. But in sport it's fun to pick a sides and the same rule also happens to be true for corporate slogging entertainment.

    In this case I - personally - happen to pick the side which has provided me with more entertainment hours and more value (and who knows what else).

    If the courts decide that Activison should win the case then I say fair play to them. But I can't give Activistsun the same goodwill that I give EA.

    It's all in the name of good fun you see :D

  • JBlokeUK #10 1 year ago

    Using Segnit's logic I pick EA.

    Go EA Gooooooooo!

  • GamesConnoisseur #11 1 year ago

    Whatever the outcome of the trial, it is certain that everyone involved will get tarnished to a various degree.

    Wouldnt be suprised if we see settlement out of the court, and the proceedings of the trial being used as a ploy of setting a price of the settlement.

    Prefers to see the trial to the end, just so we can have enough materials to keep the forums going for a good few years!

  • kosigan #12 1 year ago

    Activision alleges EA "intentionally interfered with contracts, engaged in unfair competition"

    Shock news: litiginous Americans turn to suing each other as the first resort. You've got to laugh, haven't you?

    Next up: child sues parents for initiating action that will result in his/her certain death.
    Edited by kosigan at 22/12/10 @ 09:25

  • StooMonster #13 1 year ago

    Activation complaining about capitalism is a bit rich.

    There's absolulety nothing wrong with trying to undo your competitors by hiring their key employees, if you treated them better it wouldn't be possible to steal them away; EA doing nothing but standard business practice.

    @ Shikasama: what if you're a shareholder, either directly or through a penion/mutual fund or other investment vehicle?

  • BabyJesus #14 1 year ago

    A couple of California corporate lawyers are going to have a very merry xmas.

  • DefendoCroc #15 1 year ago

    F**k off Activision, im no EA fan but Acti you a bunch of c**ts
    Edited by DefendoCroc at 22/12/10 @ 09:25

  • StooMonster #16 1 year ago

    Shikasama: And if EA did indeed poach top executives and encouraged them to break contract Activision have every right to sue them.

    Really? Where did you get your law degree from?

    If this were even remotely true then the entire headhunter industry wouldn't exist.

  • actionfitz #17 1 year ago

    Pay your fucking (ex)staff what and when you agreed... and then perhaps you can avoid $400 million lawsuits Activision.

    You negotiated low wages with higher bonus and royalty payments with your staff. They delivered billions in revenue (considering the success of MW2 will be milked for eons) and you hold back their money in order to threaten them to tow the line. You sack the studio heads for meeting with EA after you treated them like cunts. You intimidate and withhold payments to the remaining staff - as everyone but the teaboy jumps ship as soon as they are given an alternative to working for you.

    And you have the temerity to whinge to the press about your negative PR image...
    Bobby...
    I hereby cordially invite to you suck the back of my ballsack.

  • asphaltcowboy #18 1 year ago

    C'mon guys, it's Christmas! Can't we all just get along?

  • Raz76 #19 1 year ago

    It's season 2 of gaming's best soap opera and things are heating up.

  • Whitster #20 1 year ago

    I love the way people on this site ruin their perfectly argued and intelligable posts, by signing off with something along the lines of 'Bobby Kotick can suck my [insert body part]' or 'I hope Kotick [Insert grisly death scenerio]'.

    Puzzling.

  • RobTheBuilder #21 1 year ago

    The biggest word in that article for me is 'artists'. It's like the battery farm EA we used to hate has mostly evaporated...

  • DreadedWalrus #22 1 year ago

    actionfitz: Pay your fucking (ex)staff what and when you agreed... and then perhaps you can avoid $400 million lawsuits Activision.

    You've got it the wrong way around. Activision are suing EA for $400m.

  • Dizzy #23 1 year ago

    Finish him!

  • layleeloo #24 1 year ago

    Activision. Forever the cunts of the gaming world.

  • des #25 1 year ago

    EA should keep their mouths shut,blabbing around won't help them at all.

  • Malek86 #26 1 year ago

    It's difficult for me to pick sides here. On one side, there's Activision, the clear devils of today's industry. However, until the problem with Bizarre, there wasn't really much for me to hate them for (never bought any of their games anyway). But the Bizarre deal was really annoying, so now i definitely hate them.

    On the other side there's EA, the clear devils of the past generations. While they seem to be doing better lately, it's still too difficult for me to forgive the whole Bullfrog-Westwood-Origin ordeal. Yes, ten years later, I still haven't forgiven them that. Even if their CEO is different now.

    So yeah. I kinda hate them both, thus I won't pick any sides here. A double KO would be pretty nice, but I don't see it happening.

  • dagas #27 1 year ago

    Let them fight it out in an MMA ring instead of sending lawyers at each other.

  • dsmx #28 1 year ago

    When an empire is in decline it's last few years of life tends to be littered with insanity.

  • JBlokeUK #29 1 year ago

    @dagas

    A sweaty, half naked Bobby Kotick in an MMA ring is a visual I can easily live without.

  • Centrifugal #30 1 year ago

    Ah yes, "lawsuit." We have dismissed that claim.

  • geeza2020 #31 1 year ago

    Fuck all this lawsuit shit, why don't they get all the execs and managers from both companies together for a real-life battlefield/COD game with real weapons. We'll just close off some big area for them all to run around in (Baghdad perhaps) and the last corporate cunt alive wins! We can film it all and it'll be like big brother for the COD generation. Instead of celebrities breaking down and pretending to be cats or whatever, you'd have generic suit 4 losing it during a battle and turning his double 1887 shotguns on himself. Of course, because all the suits look the same, we'd have to make sure they have their respective companies logo's printed on the backs of their shirts. Or burnt into their foreheads. We'd need some kind of games-master who can keep a tally of scores, and arrange to have kill-streak awards flown in, which would be damn expensive. But its all in the name of good family entertainment so its OK.

    Sound good?
    Edited by geeza2020 at 22/12/10 @ 11:31

  • Vanmunt #32 1 year ago

    I am reading Replay 'History of Videogames' Activision have always been assholes from the start.. they pretty much brought down Atari at the time. Great read.

  • obihobson #33 1 year ago

    Stop giving multi million pound companies a bad name! activision and EA cant be evil there not alive its just a name. A name that execs hide behind when they make imoral decitions. Screw peoples lifes up to make money for the shareholders Welcome to capitalism. I think I might be a comi!!!!!!!

    Can i anyone think of a good game thats come out of a communist country? ( o yeah except china)

  • Whitster #34 1 year ago

    @Obihobson

    Tetris?

  • richthebrief #35 1 year ago

    @StooMonster - Well said.

    In the UK Activision would struggle to make a claim against EA - not sure if its the same in the US but in essence, Acti's claim remains against the 2 who broke their contracts, not someone else for offering to pay them more/give them better conditions etc

    Whilst not knowing an awful lot about it, I'd guess most onlookers would be minded to side with EA simply because Acti's claim seems petty in the extreme, and has something of the "if we throw enough mud somehting might stick mindset to it." So...yeah...Kotick's still a twat.

  • FogHeart #36 1 year ago

    Peace on Earth, goodwill to all men.

  • Corben_Dallas #37 1 year ago

    LOL Activision=OWNED.

    U idiots sacked these two in the first instance..... cause u didnt feel like paying them loyalty/bonus payments owed to them. Then they sign up with yur biggest rival..suck it down Activision. LOL

    Taking a 400million lawsuit against this just shows what winey bitches u truly are.

    Booby Kotick >truly a tick on the games industries cock. :)
    Die Kotick Die.

  • Stop-gap #38 1 year ago

    What's a "breach of fiduciary duty"?

  • Haq-1 #39 1 year ago

    geeza, SHUT THE FUCK UP

  • kosigan #40 1 year ago

    @stop-gap:
    What's a "breach of fiduciary duty"?

    Where a company's primary concern is that of making money for its shareholders, above all else. Treating the customers (or, indeed, employees) is a secondary consideration for some.

  • Kami #41 1 year ago

    I tend to agree, especially not a week ago we had this news story.

    The hypocrisy of this is quite entertaining, but yeah. THis is why Activision have a bad rep... and why they'll struggle to get rid of that bad rep for quite some time to come...

  • ronuds #42 1 year ago

    Did anyone bother to take the time to read the allegations, or do they just assume that since they don't like Bobby Kotick that Acti must be wrong? I'm sorry, but the people saying "Activision's been owned" sound like idiots. I could very well see them winning something in this.

    They have some pretty good evidence (text messages, emails, etc.) to show that the former IW guys aren't exactly perfect angels.

    I don't like Activision anymore than anyone else, but that doesn't mean I can't acknowledge that something screwy was obviously going on. The IW guys leave and a week later they have their own studio with EA? Yeah, if that doesn't smell fishy to anyone else, then there's something wrong with your nose.
    Edited by ronuds at 22/12/10 @ 19:55

  • Kami #43 1 year ago

    Sounds fishy yes, but Activision aren't exactly above this behaviour themselves so surely what's good for the goose has to be good for the gander? I get a bit tired of the bashing of Activision sometimes - as I said elsewhere, for the most part it is their PR, more notably when Kotick or someone on his behalf speaks, rather than their output. But then, it is pretty clear Activision have some pretty archaic business ideals and trying to create a scene when someone dares play them at their own game is in equal parts sad, hilarious, depressing and disturbing. This happens a lot - more often than I think we even know about - it is just in this instance it has become... well. Something else. It has taken on a life of its own and that life is rather twisted and warped and, truth be told, rather ugly on both sides. EA need to stop baiting - that I agree on, they have good press now but the holier-than-them attitude is getting pretty ridiculous - but Activision can't keep moaning about the bad press they get when they're being such dicks themselves.

    EA aren't perfect, but Activision have made it very clear how they operate. If they can't have it, nobody can - and that, by and large, is going to bite them in the ass eventually... same goes for EA and this goody-goody image they want to put on.

    In short, PLEASE stop fighting AND MAKE SOME GODDAMNED GAMES ALREADY!
    Edited by Kami at 23/12/10 @ 00:18

  • noookie #44 1 year ago

    hahaha :D