COD duo: Acti claims "false, outrageous"

By Tom Bramwell Published 12 April, 2010

EA's Jeff Brown takes a pop as well.

Robert Schwartz, the lawyer representing former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella, has described allegations made by Activision on Friday as "false and outrageous".

Activision's lawsuit claimed that West and Zampella, who were sacked last month, were conspiring to set up a rival studio, steal employees and collude with a major competitor, and that in the meantime they were jamming up Modern Warfare 3 pre-production and behaving insubordinately.

Not so, according to Schwartz, who rebutted a few of the claims in a statement carried by the LA Times.

"Activision itself proposed spinning off Infinity Ward when, last year, it sought to renegotiate Jason and Vince's contract and induce them to forego developing a new game in favour of doing another Modern Warfare sequel. Jason and Vince had hired the Creative Artists Agency to advise them in their negotiations with Activision, and not to breach their contract.

"The conversations with IW employees, talent agents, and others during these negotiations with Activision were conducted to see if Activision's proposal could work, and not in disrespect of their obligations to Activision."

More importantly, according to Schwartz, Activision is ignoring the fact that Modern Warfare 2 was enormously successful. "And none of this changes the fact that Jason and Vince would still be at Infinity Ward developing new games except that Activision kicked them out. This is just an Activision tactic to avoid paying Jason and Vince and everyone else at Infinity Ward the millions of dollars they all earned and that Activision owes them.

"Since being fired by Activision, Jason and Vince have taken steps to regain control over their creative future and plan to have an announcement very soon."

Meanwhile, shy and retiring EA man Jeff Brown declined to deal with Activision's claim that West and Zampella were speaking to its largest competitor. "We don't have the time to comment on the many lawsuits Activision files against its employees and creative partners," he reportedly said. Oh Jeff.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (15) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • tobsen #1 2 years ago

    I could really get used to reading a new episode in this soap opera every Monday morning, cliffhanger included. Great stuff!

  • matrim83 #2 2 years ago

    "We don't have the time to comment on the many lawsuits Activision files against its employees and creative partners,"

    :D

  • Jamieb87 #3 2 years ago

    Jeff brown- zoom zoom zoom

  • BillMurray #4 2 years ago

    I predict another 15 IW/Activision 'news' stories by the end of the week.

  • actionfitz #5 2 years ago

    Jeff Brown: "We don't have the time to comment on the many lawsuits Activision files against its employees and creative partners,"

    +1 Jeff Brown

    :)

  • Eraysor #6 2 years ago

    I really hope this saga continues, if only because it has the chance to spectacularly backfire on Activision.

  • Murton #7 2 years ago

    "I really hope this saga continues, if only because it has the chance to spectacularly backfire on Activision."

    I think that ship has already sailed as far as public relations is concerned, nobody on these comments threads seems to side with activision or believe a word that they have said and many are hoping or indeed predicting just as you are, that this will end up doing more damage to Activision than West and Zampella's leaving ever could.

    The truth of the matter is that as this case moves steadily towards a court Activision makes more and more claims about the behaviour of the men in question, claims that are going to have to be substantiated if they're to have any hope coming out of that courtroom with a win, something which I simply don't see happening unless they quit making new claims and start proving the current ones.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #8 2 years ago

    "Activision's lawsuit claimed that West and Zampella, who were sacked last month, were conspiring to set up a rival studio, steal employees and collude with a major competitor"

    Well, if they weren't before, they certainly are now.

  • Drpwnage #9 2 years ago

    The likely outcome of this mud slinging is that subsequent MW games will plummet towards mediocrity, as Activision piss around with IW and staff leave.

  • Kami #10 2 years ago

    "Activision's lawsuit claimed that West and Zampella, who were sacked last month, were conspiring to set up a rival studio, steal employees and collude with a major competitor"

    Soooo, rather than sit down with them and express your fears, concerns and see if you can't keep two amazing developers on your side, you refuse to pay them royalties and fire them so they can go ahead and collude with the enemy and steal employees etc.

    I mean... WHAT THE HELL IS ACTIVISION DOING?! This is Business Practice as conducted by a thirteen year old girl having her first goddamned period! It will hurt Activision because what they did was entirely the wrong thing, and in completely the wrong manner - and that is before they get to proving all these claims in court!

    It's ridiculous. Did Bobby Kotick not take his meds that day or something because I still think this is the most monumentally stupid thing Activision has ever done ever... and yes, that is above some very questionable games...

  • kangarootoo #11 2 years ago

    To summarise what I wrote in the other thread, there is the possibility that neither side is being truthful or playing nice.

    This idea that we have to pick a side, and assume our chosen side is Good (whereas the other side of cousre takes the role of bad) is just too simplistic for my tastes.

    People look after their own interests. That much you can be sure of.

  • gjgjg #12 2 years ago

    i know there's usually a middle ground but JWVZ story rings true in comparison to acti's.

    also nice comment jeff:p

  • irve77 #13 2 years ago

    look we all know activision act like dicks

    but the sad fact of the matter is COD 7 and MW3 will sell like hotcakes no matter who makes them.

    The whole of the infinity ward team could leave and start a rival studio and bring out a game the very same day as MW3 and MW3 would outsell it 10-1 .

    The general public neither know or care who makes the games they play ... and that is the way publishers like it !

    Business is like a tree full of chimps ...chimp at top looks down and all he sees is monkeys ... chimp at the bottom looks up and all he sees is arseholes !
    Edited by irve77 at 12/04/10 @ 14:21

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #14 2 years ago

    The whole of the infinity ward team could leave and start a rival studio and bring out a game the very same day as MW3 and MW3 would outsell it 10-1.

    You realise that West and Zampella did this before, and their previous franchise, EA's now-moribund Medal of Honour has been completely trounced by the new one they set up? And how well is the Championship Manager series doing, now Sports Interactive have moved on?

    It might not have worked completely for Harmonix moving from Guitar Hero to Rock Band, but that's because it's quite hard to fuck up a game formula that consists of just pressing buttons in time to music.

  • Collymilad #15 2 years ago

    ""We don't have the time to comment on the many lawsuits Activision files against its employees and creative partners,"

    :D "

    Indeed. Love that.