After all the mess of the past few days between Activision and former Infinity Ward heads Vince Zampella and Jason West, it looks like a suit will be brought against Activision for breach of contract.
Apparently, the founders of Infinity Ward, let go on March 1st by producer Activision, were owed compensation for their work on the extremely successful Modern Warfare 2, but had their employment terminated before the payments were due. Here’s what their attorney, Rob Schwartz, had to say:
"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."
And so the drama continues. Although Activision is no stranger to lawsuit, maybe this will be the one that breaks the bank for Kotick. Part of the suit includes a return of contractual rights for the fired heads to the Modern Warfare series. With two great games already under their belts, the awarding of these rights could mean yet another success for West and Zampella in Modern Warfare 3, although possibly with a different publisher.
[Joystiq]
