A judge has supported the claims by ex Infinity Ward bosses, West and Zampella, in their accusation that Activision committed fraud when a new contract was signed after the completion of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
The ruling means that Activision must face West and Zampella in court and there is a possibility that modest movie star Bob Kotick could be called in. “That can’t be good for Activision. They can’t be happy about this,” said attorney Robert Schwartz.
The news arrives on the same day Activision have declared they do not want to be seen as ‘the evil empire’. Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg (backed up by two PR people) spoke to Gamasutra and discussed how they wish to change the perception of the company.
It’s about putting a human face on the company. It’s about being transparent and honest and human in our dealings with our community.
Hirshberg cited the company’s recent response to the Modern Warfare 3 leaks as an example of how the company is changing, suggesting people were surprised when then company did not go ‘silverback gorilla crazy’.
Forrest_01
I’ve known a few gorillas in my time – Not one of them crazy.
rht992
i might be crazy but maybe they leaked them then handled it so well so it looked like they weren’t evil? or some such thing
Boomshanks
That’s the vibe I’m getting as well.
“How do we change the way the people see Activision?” “Why don’t we leak something and handle it in an extremely proper way”. Seems quite plausible now.
Mclaren193
If W & Z won and acquired the rights to the MOdern Warfare series, would Acti then have to pay them for all the money they made out of the series since those two left?…
gazzagb
Activision will always be seen as the bad guys of the video game industry, it’s a fact. I hope W&Z win the court battle, it would be wrong for them to have made the MW series what it is and then for Activision to take that away from them.
cc_star
Except Activision ‘own’ it through owning Infinity Ward & therefore all ‘owning’ its senior employees endeavours & IP whilst in the employ of the company
Tuffcub
That doesnt matter if a subsequent contract – which is what this lawsuit is about – gives them new rights.
BrendanCalls
I hope they aren’t always seen as the bad guys because actually they’re not the bad guys, they are just perceived that way by a largely ill-informed interwebz community. Im not saying you are ill-informed, i know your not, but in the main Activision aren’t doing anything in game development/publishing industry that every other company, such as EA or THQ, want to implement as well. Activision just have the balls and the power to do it first and let everyone else follow.
Really, there aren’t any bad guys, there is just a group of developers making the best games they can, while a publisher is trying to get those games to you all while trying to make a profit to appease the people who are funding all these games to get off the ground
cc_star
Hirshberg’s previous company worked wonders with Sony, arguing being the principle cause for their ‘turnaround’ in the States, wonder if it will be as successful with Acti
On this case, I can’t see anything other than Publisher who puts up the money retaining ownership of the brand, they certainly wouldn’t have gone all out with BlOps & MW3 if they had a shred of doubt things weren’t tighter than a ducks arse their end, however W&Z could get some bonuses out of it, which Acti have withheld because the counter-claim is obviously that W&Z were actively working against Activision having effectively defected to Respawn/EA long before it was official.
Sympozium
What use would it make? all for number one? Ea? I hope the right side achieves a fair victory.
yogh_wayne
Not really the kind of publicity they’d want as preparation for the MW3 launch, I guess.
Activision will be seen as the money-grabbing evil empire as long as they let Bobby Kottick do interviews. Personally I’m just not interested in the games they publish, since I don’t play COD, WoW or GuitarHero. I’ve got one great Activision game, Singularity, and their support for that was pretty underwhelming. I don’t know, maybe there are more good Activision games, but I’ve never heard about them due to poor advertisement/support?
TSBonyman
Singularity was developed by Ravensoft and published by Activision – i just hate it when the developers of a game seemingly get reduced to a footnote :)
bigdon23
Did i ever tell you the definition of insanity!
Gamoc
Activision PR: ‘We do not want to be seen as the evil empire.’
Kotick: ‘UNLIMITED POOWWWEEEERRRRRRRR!’ [shoots electricity]
TSBonyman
It’ll all come out in the wash , that is hopefully they won’t broker a secret deal because i think it’s important to know the details if any of the parties have engaged in foul play. Interesting times ahead..