Activision Countersues Modern Warfare 2 Execs

WrongSizeGlass writes "AP is reporting that Activision has countersued former Infinity Ward executives Jason West and Vince Zampella. Activision claims West and Zampella 'morphed from valued, responsible executives into insubordinate and self-serving schemers who attempted to hijack Activision's assets for their own personal gain and whose actions threatened both the future of the Call of Duty franchise and the future of Activision's (Infinity Ward) studio.'" This follows Activision's firing of the execs earlier this year. Legal documents indicate that this legal dispute has caused delays in the production of Modern Warfare 3. Lawyers for the two fired execs say Activision's claims are ridiculous, citing Modern Warfare 2's overwhelming financial success. Meanwhile, it's rumored that EA is seeing the whole fiasco as an opportunity.

Comments

Weird

[Jerrei]

Self-serving schemers? What, Kotick was afraid of some competition?

Awesome!

[Guido69]

I'm sure as customers we'll all benefit from this litigation. Mad props to the lawyers!

Re:Awesome!

[alex4u2nv]

Afterall, Modern warfare is lead by lawyers =)

Re:Awesome!

[Scrameustache]

I'm sure as customers we'll all benefit from this litigation. Mad props to the lawyers!

Of course! Those people who make good games need to kept in check by the people who really have our best interest at heart: The people who want to milk a franchise as fast as possible! Those are the real heroes... them, and their lawyers, obviously.

Re:Awesome!

[commodore64_love]

What I found funny was the quote from the legal brief: "They morphed from valued, responsible executives into insubordinate, self-serving schemers who attempted to hijack Activision's assets for their own personal gain."

Sounds like my ex.

Re:Awesome!

[pdabbadabba]

I don't really have anything to say about the merits of all this. But I thought it might shape your views to know that in a situation like this (assuming the case is in federal court, or a court using something like the federal rules), Activision has to bring any countersuit that arose from the same set of circumstances that form the basis of the plaintiffs' original suit; they won't be allowed to bring it later. So, it may well be that Activision had never really intended to sue the execs, but was forced to bring the counterclaim now to keep its options open.

Re:Awesome!

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Sue, counter-sue. With each passing case, the US legal system sounds more like a venue for petty schoolground squabbles, instead of a place where adult disputes are resolved. Is there anyone at the helm of this vessel?

Re:Awesome!

[Nathrael]

Call of Jury: Modern Lawfare :P

Not EA, Anything but EA!

[ColonelSplendid]

Please guys, don't go to EA, that is like going from a semi-evil organization to the ultimate evil organization. Go work for Valve or Bungie or one of the other decent studios out there.

Re:Not EA, Anything but EA!

[Nivlheim]

EA may have been the ultimate evil for some time, but Activision has recently been able to overtake them. By a rather large amount too. The former is now the diet-coke of evil, while the evil-scale has had to be redefined to accomodate the latter.

Re:Not EA, Anything but EA!

[__aasqbs9791]

Any company that makes numerous sequels to games and then names then in such a way that you can't immediately tell what order they came out in (Need for Speed, I'm looking at you) is Evil in my book. Of course I'm the only thing that isn't evil in my book, so maybe that isn't such a useful scale.

Re:Not EA, Anything but EA!

[Devout_IPUite]

IMO In the Evil Pagent: Ubisoft is still winning. EA is 2nd. Activision is 3rd.

Re:Not EA, Anything but EA!

[KDR_11k]

Because the company was in terrible health and needed to downsize. They didn't have enough income to support as many employees as they had.

Re:Not EA, Anything but EA!

[Jesus_666]

You're right about Bungie (remember, they used to develop for Mac OS before Microsoft bought them; now they dont make any Mac games at all) but Valve isn't exactly dogmatically Windows-only. Steam for Mac (along with Cider-ported versions of Valve's Steam games) is slated to launch this month. They realized that Mac users pay for games, too, and are catering towards that market. Seems fairly balanced.

Punish Activision

[0xdeadbeef]

I quit World of Warcraft over this. I've never played Modern Warfare, nor do I care who made it, but it is obvious that Activision wants to milk its franchises until there is nothing left but dessicated corpses, and fuck anyone who stands in their way.

Re:Punish Activision

[Ephemeriis]

I quit World of Warcraft over this. I've never played Modern Warfare, nor do I care who made it, but it is obvious that Activision wants to milk its franchises until there is nothing left but dessicated corpses, and fuck anyone who stands in their way.

Actually, that seems to be what pretty much everyone is doing these days...

We've got sequels and expansions and spin-offs of anything even remotely successful - on the big screen, in TV, with video games, and with books.

Seems like nobody wants to be creative/original anymore.

Re:Punish Activision

[dougisfunny]

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/12/5/

Duh.

Re:Punish Activision

[Anonymous Coward]

I quit World of Warcraft over this. I've never played Modern Warfare, nor do I care who made it, but it is obvious that Activision wants to milk its franchises until there is nothing left but dessicated corpses, and fuck anyone who stands in their way.

Actually, that seems to be what pretty much everyone is doing these days...

We've got sequels and expansions and spin-offs of anything even remotely successful - on the big screen, in TV, with video games, and with books.

Seems like nobody wants to be creative/original anymore.

Give it a few decades.

Musicians and film artists are just now being able to really succeed free of the grips of their large respective "artist associations". There's still a long way to go, though. It's taken about 50 years for music, 80 years for film.

In 20 years, indie studios in video gaming are starting to get a real grip on the industry. Extrapolate that. So, I say, give it a decade or so. Being at the grips of some big, monolithic evil publisher won't be an issue anymore.

Re:Punish Activision

[poena.dare]

"Seems like nobody wants to be creative/original anymore."

I dunno... I heard Modern Warfare 3: Reuters' Photographer Extermination was supposed to be pretty different...

Re:Punish Activision

[Ephemeriis]

The problem with many games now-a-days is they're story based. You get invested into a story which adds lots of value to the game.

This is a problem? I always thought stories were a good thing...

FPS game are the only games that can easily be changed/unique because not being held to a story line.

I disagree. The fact that FPS games are more-or-less driven by their mechanics, rather than a storyline, typically makes them less unique.

In Doom I was some generic guy running around and blasting monsters... In Quake I was a different generic guy running around and blasting different monsters with slightly better graphics... In Unreal I was a different generic guy running around and blasting different monsters with even better graphics...

But in Half-Life I was Gordon Freeman attempting to escape from Black Mesa after a resonance cascade tore the facility apart and flooded our world with extra-dimensional nasties.

There's a reason why the crowbar has become a truly iconic weapon... While the nail gun has been all-but forgotten.

Any major FPS game is mostly multiplayer, so just make it fun and it's a winner.

Fun is, of course, subjective...

But let's assume you've got some FPS title that everyone agrees is fun. And you take those exact mechanics and just re-skin everything... Say, take some Call of Duty title and turn it into a sci-fi shooter... Aside from preferring a sci-fi setting to a more realistic one, why would I bother to buy the new game if it's identical to the old one in every way that matters?

RTS/MMORPG/etc are a lot more involved and are more fun when there's a history.

I agree... But that doesn't mean you have to keep rolling out sequels. You can create the history within the game itself. Give your characters some depth and detail... Fill in the blanks in the world... Make me feel like I know the characters, the places, the villains... Give me a history, even if I've never heard of the game before.

Re:Punish Activision

[NeutronCowboy]

That's because being creative and original doesn't pay. Guitar Hero, GTA and Modern Warfare spawn sequels because each sequel is HUGELY profitable. Brutal Legends won't, as it maybe broke even. Furthermore, every original game that is wildly successful will spawn a sequel - guaranteed. See Portal, for example. This means that sequels, spin-offs and expansions are guaranteed to outnumber successful original games.

However, here's something you can do to help: when an original game comes along, and it might not be the bee's knees - buy it anyway. Consider it a charity donation for Developers Taking Risks. For me, I'm pretty much set on buying every Tim Schafer game there is. They are not always magic, and often have some significant flaws, but $60 every 2-3 years is worth it to give him a chance to keep making games.

Re:Punish Activision

[NeutronCowboy]

In 20 years, indie studios in video gaming are starting to get a real grip on the industry. Extrapolate that. So, I say, give it a decade or so. Being at the grips of some big, monolithic evil publisher won't be an issue anymore.

Good point. Personally, I see the seeds starting now: hardware and tools are powerful enough that even without a budget, you can create a polished game experience. You don't have to code a physics engine by hand, you don't have to be a graphics wizard to create a colorful world with great draw distance, and you don't have to ration your CPU-cycles to have some sort of believable AI and pathfinding.

Since the biggest difference between blockbusters with 50 million dollar budgets and those with 50k budgets will be how many content creators and how many hair-physics creators they employ, there's a good chance that indie developers can actually be very successful. See Portal and Castle Crashers, for example.

Re:Punish Activision

[poena.dare]

Def in bad taste. Sorry.

Re:Punish Activision

[ildon]

There's a reason why the crowbar has become a truly iconic weapon... While the nail gun has been all-but forgotten.

That's because what became Quake's signature weapon was not the nailgun, it was the rocket launcher, which is still pretty fucking iconic when you consider the relative (overall) popularity of the two game series. TF2 has an entire class built around just the Quake rocket launcher.

Re:Punish Activision

[Ephemeriis]

That's because what became Quake's signature weapon was not the nailgun, it was the rocket launcher, which is still pretty fucking iconic when you consider the relative (overall) popularity of the two game series. TF2 has an entire class built around just the Quake rocket launcher.

I have to disagree. Maybe I'm in the minority here... But when somebody says "crowbar" in relation to gaming, I think of Half-Life. When somebody says "rocket launcher" in relation to gaming, no particular title comes to mind.

Re:Punish Activision

[Khyber]

"Do you think that without Valve they could have gotten the GLaDOS voice actress? "

Uh, yea. Aren't you aware of the capabilities of the SBLive! cards? Native FX processing built-in from ring modulators to flangers to pitch shifters. It would be TRIVIAL to redo the GLaDOS voice with a piece of hardware that might cost fifteen bucks today.

Re:Punish Activision

[jackbird]

Being creative and original paid pretty fucking well for the developers of the first Guitar Hero.

opportunity knocks but twice

[phantomfive]

it's rumored that EA is seeing the whole fiasco as an opportunity

Look for it soon! Executive Slayer, the Headhunter Edition! Can you chase down enemies, destroy smaller game companies, assassinate foes, all while managing to convince the public to buy crap products and run a profitable company? Preorder now for the 'IP Lawyer' character, which allows you to snipe your customers for extra pocket change! Bonus points if you can get them to keep buying afterwards!

The magic of words

[Anonymous Coward]

When one says: "They were insubordinate and self-serving schemers who attempted to hijack Activision's assets for their own personal gain"
The other says: "They owed us salary and we tried to get them to pay it"

Coming up very soon...

[durrr]

... EA announces Modern Company: Bad warfare 3.
Starting at three, because then there's place for atleast two prequels without having to use convoluted titles.

what I've learned from this

[rev_sanchez]

'morphed from valued, responsible executives into insubordinate and self-serving schemers

Apparently these lawyers don't think judges and juries know what executives are.

They've done it to themselves

[rAiNsT0rm]

I worked in the game industry for about 10 years (PS1-PS2) and I've said it here for years, game companies are putting themselves out of business. The development and production costs have gotten so far out of hand that only "safe" games can be made. Sequels, franchises, licensed crap. No one can afford to take a chance any more, and almost every great game back in the day came from risk. The great games that have had massive support and funding end up having every corner rounded off in the name of wider appeal or time/money constraints. The only games that have managed to be risky and creative are the super small indie games which I think deserve the spotlight these days. It is a steady decline regardless of the profits and numbers. In another few years it is game over and the 1980's crash will come again. Consoles will disappear instead of arcades. It's sad, it's sad to see developers and designers get screwed even more than they already were, but this shake up will knock all of the garbage out of the system and bring it back down to reality and well designed games.

See, this is what happens

[Dunbal]

When there is a lot of money involved. Just like Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema. Everyone wants a bigger share of the pie. The execs should realize that it was the activision TEAM that helped produce the product, and the company should realize that the two "idiots" they are suing delivered the best selling game ever.

But no, humans are and will always be factious.