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New Call of Duty Titles Announced, Fired Devs Sue For Name
eldavojohn writes "Activision has announced new Call of Duty titles while fired Infinity Ward Developer leads Jason West and Vince Zampella sue them for the rights to the name. According to Activision, 'The company intends to expand the Call of Duty brand with the same focus seen in its Blizzard Entertainment business unit. This will include a focus on high-margin digital online content and further[ing] the brand as the leading action entertainment franchise in new geographies, new genres and with new digital business models.' Ars opines that Activision is set to over-saturate the market with tons of CoD titles similar to how it expertly brought down Guitar Hero."
will probably be the only end result, after ten years.
All that really has to be done to solve 70% of the problems with the game industry is assassinating Bobby Kotick. Why won't somebody get on it already?
In their countersue Jason West and Vince Zampella claim that they have the right for "creative authority and approval for any "Modern Warfare" titles set in the post-Vietnam era, near future, or distant future".
Is it coincidence that Activision is announcing the development of several COD games at the same time?
What I suspect happened is that Activision just started developing these games without consulting Jason West and Vince Zampella, and then went to talk to them thinking they could just force them to do what they wanted.
When they refused, they got fired.
As opposed to the newly announced Activision title, Call of Jewry-- telling the tale of two Polish Jews hardened by the camps who have escaped, and are now killing their way toward the Fuhrerbunker one. fucking. nazi. at a time. They're calling it a masterpiece of historical authenticity, and have already announced DLC where you can buy new single player maps, each with a prominent Third Reich figure as a boss, which you can horribly murder a la Rockstar's Manhunt games crossed with Bloodrayne.
One level is already generating controversy before it has even been released. Our steely antiheroes are caught in an SS Paranormal Division experiment and are flung back in time through an unstable portal. It is February 1904, days before the birth of Reinhard Heydrich-- the Butcher of Prague, and architect of the Final Solution. You are tasked with tracking down the pregnant mother before the temporal portal collapses and you are destroyed in the process. Will you kill the unborn child, kill the mother, or will you show the compassion that was not shown to you? What changes will your decision cause in Activision's dynamic gameplay system?
Don't miss Activision's newest blockbuster: Call of Jewry -- "Never Forget. Never Again."
Quintin Tarantino is reportedly having a boxing match with Uwe Boll to see who will direct the film adaption.
(If Activision is reading this, you can license this idea for a modest fee... It almost saddens me that I would probably pay money to play this.)
--Obyron
According the legal brief that IW filed they didn't "SELL" to Activision, Activision simply bought them out. Also after MW1 West and Zampella signed a contract with Activision that gave them exclusive rights to the "Modern Warfare" name, stating that no game can hold that title, nor can any Call of duty game take place after the Vietnam War without written consent from both of them. It also promised them royalties for for any past or present Call of Duty game or any game built on an engine developed by IW. It also promised them creative freedoms to explore new IPs instead of just churning out COD games. The only "hitch" was that the two had to make another Modern Warfare (MW2) and that they had to deliver it by November 15th..
Well, they delivered the game, and did so 5 days before it was due. honestly I think even if Activision has valid grounds for letting them go, they still owe them what was promised in that contract since it the two of them clearly met their end of the bargain. Kotaku has the whole legal briefing... it's eye opening
The REAL issue seems to be that Activision was afraid that the two were going to jump ship and go back to EA... The legal brief also goes into details of ridiculous month-long interrogation techniques Activision put the IW developers though trying to find evidence against West and Zampella. The final termination was based on comments made by them at a meeting over a year ago, and they were given 6 hours to "respond" to the charge of "insubordination" without being told what the charge was actually about.
It's like a husband suspecting that his wife is cheating, turned the house upside down looking for evidence, and then the only "evidence" he can find is an off handed email from a year ago and kicks her out saying "you know what you've done"...
Collector's Edition