Call of Duty Founders sue Activision

[Eagle Eye]

It will be interesting to hear the outcome of this story as it developes.

The founders of Call of Duty, one of the most successful video game franchises ever, are suing Activision after being forced out of their company.
Jason West and Vince Zampella, two of the founders of Encino, Calif.-based Infinity Ward, announced the lawsuit in a release on Wednesday. They said they were terminated by Activision weeks before they were set to receive royalties for their smash hit Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which has earned more than $3 billion U.S. since its November release


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/03/04/call-of-duty-activision-lawsuit.html#ixzz0hVJ5dGTV

[Mr. Gruntsworthy]

they probably got fired because of how glitchy and unbalanced the MW2 multiplayer became. Serves them right.

[Arinoth]

Actually how MW2 was released (glitches and all) were because of activision, not IW

[Deviant]

Originally Posted by Mr. Gruntsworthy

they probably got fired because of how glitchy and unbalanced the MW2 multiplayer became. Serves them right.

If you actually read about the article and looked up news lately, it's all because of Activision. Does MW2 suck? Yes. But was it really IW's fault when they were forced to complete a project in such a short time frame? Partially, if they had not sold themselves out, they wouldn't be in this situation now.

IW had no plans to release another CoD Modern Warfare game but Activision had control, IW had 8 months to release MW2 compared to the 2 years they tend to take to make their games.
Activision has yet to pay the necessary royalties from MW2's sales which amounts to a mere 36 million compared to the $1 billion + earned by MW2.
It also mentioned how Activision 1 week after MW2's release had launched an internal investigation on IW and made claims of insubordination, essentially raided the IW headquarters just recently as they interviewed each IW employee individually in a locked room (I suppose IW needs to be interrogated like terrorists) with some coming out crying. The interrogation took place over President's day where the two founders themselves spent 6 hours in a hot interrogation late evening. The two founders were not allowed to speak to any of the IW employees interrogated or console them, other they'll face further charges of insubordination.

What has been postulated, is Activision wants IW to churn out more CoD games but IW refused. IW owns the rights/creative design of the CoD brand (well, the two founders) but with both of them gone, Activision has complete control. I suppose Activision wants to rape this franchise like they did with Guitar Hero. Activision has a new studio working on the new CoD games in addition to Treyarch (who essentially just rehashes all CoD games with minor changes and no developmental effort in progressing the actual gameplay)

It's very ironic when you look at the history of Activision which started off as a 1st party publisher who then became a 3rd party publisher. The company started off because of disgruntled employees from game publishers who treated them badly. They wanted to publish games and not be bullied around. Looks like the tides have turned as they're now the bullies.

[LarkStarr]

Aye, it's unfair to base all of MW2 problems on IW, it was not totally their fault in this situation.

[TimTheEnchanter]

Originally Posted by Deviant

If you actually read about the article and looked up news lately, it's all because of Activision. Does MW2 suck? Yes. But was it really IW's fault when they were forced to complete a project in such a short time frame? Partially, if they had not sold themselves out, they wouldn't be in this situation now.

IW had no plans to release another CoD Modern Warfare game but Activision had control, IW had 8 months to release MW2 compared to the 2 years they tend to take to make their games.
Activision has yet to pay the necessary royalties from MW2's sales which amounts to a mere 36 million compared to the $1 billion + earned by MW2.
It also mentioned how Activision 1 week after MW2's release had launched an internal investigation on IW and made claims of insubordination, essentially raided the IW headquarters just recently as they interviewed each IW employee individually in a locked room (I suppose IW needs to be interrogated like terrorists) with some coming out crying. The interrogation took place over President's day where the two founders themselves spent 6 hours in a hot interrogation late evening. The two founders were not allowed to speak to any of the IW employees interrogated or console them, other they'll face further charges of insubordination.

What has been postulated, is Activision wants IW to churn out more CoD games but IW refused. IW owns the rights/creative design of the CoD brand (well, the two founders) but with both of them gone, Activision has complete control. I suppose Activision wants to rape this franchise like they did with Guitar Hero. Activision has a new studio working on the new CoD games in addition to Treyarch (who essentially just rehashes all CoD games with minor changes and no developmental effort in progressing the actual gameplay)

It's very ironic when you look at the history of Activision which started off as a 1st party publisher who then became a 3rd party publisher. The company started off because of disgruntled employees from game publishers who treated them badly. They wanted to publish games and not be bullied around. Looks like the tides have turned as they're now the bullies.

Thank you, Deviant! My lack of knowloedge of english made it hard for me to understand what happened. Now i get it.