Game industry giant Activision has decided to stop playing games with former Infinity Ward employees and founders Jason West and Vince Zampella and pay them what they were owed. Less than a day before the case was set to go to court, Activision Blizzard decided to settle in the lawsuit over Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 filed by West and Zampella.
Pre-trial hearings were delayed several times during the week leading up to the trial on Friday, June 1, while teams for both camps were struggling to reach a settlement in the dispute. The case had high stakes - proceeds earned from the Call of Duty franchise in full. The franchise has brought $7 billion in sales over the past nine years. Activision decided to settle with its former CoD creators rather than face a jury.
According to the Associated Press, the parties managed to reach an agreement before the 1:30 p.m. PST deadline on Thursday, May 31, after which the case would have gone to court. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Activision immediately issued a statement to calm the company's shareholders, assuring them that the settled payout would not affect Activision's earnings in the second quarter of 2012 or in its fiscal full year.
What Happened
Activision fired West and Zampella from their positions as chief technology officer and chief creative officer, respectively, at Infinity Ward after it discovered the two had been meeting with arch-rival Electronic Arts (EA). The meetings with EA were reportedly to discuss a partnership that would allow West, Zampella, and other Infinity Ward employees to found a new studio. This was back in 2010, a few months after Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was released, when Infinity Ward was having trouble getting the publisher to pay due royalties based on the game's success.
After they were fired from their positions at Activision-owned Infinity Ward, West and Zampella sued Activision for $36 million. That figure was later raised to a total of $2 billion in owed pay and damages. Not long after the duo filed the lawsuit against Activision, the publisher filed its own suit against Electronic Arts (EA), seeking $400 million in damages for poaching employees. That case was settled earlier in May.
"Activision's refusal to pay their talent and attempt to blame EA were absurd," EA said in a statement, as cited by BBC News. "This settlement is a vindication of Vince and Jason, and the right of creative artists to collect the rewards due for their hard work."
