Infinity Ward Heads Lawsuit Documents Go Online

05 Mar 2010 at 11:35:32 by Tim McDonald

Documents from the West/Zampella vs. Activision have appeared online.

The documents have surfaced, which detail ousted studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella's case in more detail.

The documents largely confirm and reiterate what we've heard before. Of most importance are the mentions of Activision's "Memorandum of Understanding" created to give West and Zampella an incentive to work on Modern Warfare 2, which "gives West and Zampella creative authority over the development of any games under the Modern Warfare brand (or any Call of Duty game set in the post-Vietnam era, the near future, or the distant future) including complete control over the Infinity Ward studio."

"The MOU explicitly provides that no such game can be commercially released without the written consent of West and Zampella," the documents continue. "Second, the MOU gives West and Zampella the right to operate Infinity Ward independently and to choose to develop new intellectual property after they completed Modern Warfare 2. Third, in addition to the standard and bonus compensation in the Employment Agreement, Activision agreed to pay Plaintiffs and the Infinity Ward studio additional compensation, including a pool of Restricted Stock Units, stock options, a royalty for any Call of Duty game, a technology royalty for any Activision game that makes significant use of Infinity Ward technology, and a royalty for Modern Warfare 2 and future titles."

The court documents go on to assert that "Activision chose, instead, to launch a pre-textual investigation against West and Zampella to create a basis to fire the two co-heads of Infinity Ward before the first Modern Warfare 2 royalty payment would be paid in the ordinary course, on March 31, 2010."

The investigation was supposedly "to manufacture a basis to fire West and Zampella." The pair "were interrogated for over six hours in a windowless conference room; Activision investigators brought other Infinity Ward employees to tears in their questioning and accusations and threatened West and Zampella with 'insubordination' if they attempted to console them."

Accusations of devious, underhanded, and Orwellian tactics, then, as well as "astonishing arrogance and unbridled greed."

Activision has responded to these accusations with a statement, believing the pair's claims to be "meritless."

"Over eight years, Activision shareholders provided these executives with the capital they needed to start Infinity Ward, as well as the financial support, resources and creative independence that helped them flourish and achieve enormous professional success and personal wealth," it reads.

"In return, Activision legitimately expected them to honor their obligations to Activision, just like any other executives who hold positions of trust in the company. While the company showed enormous patience, it firmly believes that its decision was justified based on their course of conduct and actions. Activision remains committed to the Call of Duty franchise, which it owns, and will continue to produce exciting and innovative games for its millions of fans."

Is that all? Is it hell. Reports from an internal memo G4TV got a hold of have come out, detailing the documents that Activision is looking for regarding the pending litigation. Some are regarding "past, current, or future IW projects, including but not limited to any and all business analyses of future projects (e.g. Modern Warfare 3)" while others are documents regarding "any potential 'spin out' of IW, including but not limited to any communications with IW employees, West or Zampella regarding forming a new studio independent of Activision."

Perhaps most interesting, though, are the mentions of documents regarding "West and Zampella's communications with Activision's competitors, including but not limited to Electronic Arts."

Naturally, we'll keep you posted as more comes out.

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