This past week has had what is without-a-doubt one of the biggest, most dramatic stories to rock the videogame industry in a long time. On Monday, Infinity Ward heads Vince Zampella and Jason West went to a private meeting with Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision. They did not return to the Infinity Ward studios the rest of the day.
Instead the studio was visited by "bouncer types". These security personnel were from Activision and refused to tell Infinity Ward employees why they were there. It was later discovered that Activision, written in a 150-page report, was looking into "insubordination" and "breach of fiduciary duty" with two Infinity Ward employees. The LinkedIn profiles for the two heads were then changed to state that they no longer worked for Infinity Ward. It was then confirmed by Activision that they were no longer with the company.
The following day it was discovered that West and Zampella were filing a lawsuit against Activision for breach of contract. The two claimed that they are owed compensation for their work on the widely successful Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. According to their lawyer, Activision hired lawyers to look into their sense that West and Zampella were performing "insubordination" and "breach of fiduciary duty" a month prior to the IW heads’ termination. The two also want the rights to the Modern Warfare IP.
An internal Activision memo was then leaked to reveal just what it is the security was looking for at the IW studios. They were looking for any documents regarding IW beginning work on a future project (e.g. Modern Warfare 3), documents that could hint towards West and Zampella or Infinity Ward in general leaving Activision to form an independent developer, or documents regarding any communications Ward and Zampella may have had with competitors, with Electronic Arts named specifically.
Activision then finally released a statement in response to the lawsuit. Taking what reads as a scornful tone, the statement said that the publisher was "disappointed" with both West and Zampella for taking this route and defended their actions for firing both IW heads.
With all of these developments the GN Q asks you this:
What do you think of the Activision/Infinity Ward situation?
[G4TV.com]
