It looks like Tuesday’s drama over the ousting of Infinity Ward’s Vince Zampella and Jason West was just the beginning – we now have word that the two have filed suit against Activision for breach of contract. According to the press release, the two were due for some “substantial” royalty payments but got the axe just before they were set to be paid out.
“Activision has refused to honor the terms of its agreements and is intentionally flouting the fundamental public policy of this State (California) that employers must pay their employees what they have rightfully earned,” said their attorney Robert Schwartz. “Instead of thanking, lauding, or just plain paying Jason and Vince for giving Activision the most successful entertainment product ever offered to the public, last month Activision hired lawyers to conduct a pretextual ‘investigation’ into unstated and unsubstantiated charges of ‘insubordination’ and ‘breach of fiduciary duty,’ which then became the grounds for their termination on Monday, March 1st.”
“We were shocked by Activision’s decision to terminate our contract,” said West. “We poured our heart and soul into that company, building not only a world class development studio, but assembling a team we’ve been proud to work with for nearly a decade. We think the work we’ve done speaks for itself.”
Zampella added, “After all we have given to Activision, we shouldn’t have to sue to get paid.
That’s a lot of lawer-y talk and I’m no mathematician, but by my calculation the royalties from Modern Warfare 2’s billion-dollar gross totals out at about eleventy-zillion dollars. We’ll just have to wait and see how this one plays out, and how it impacts the future of one of gaming’s most successful franchises.
