Activision have settled with former employees West & Zampella.
Their attorney has confirmed that a settlement has been reached, but the conditions of that settlement are confidential. “We have reached a settlement in this matter as to all parties and all claims,” he said. “Dismissals will be filed soon.”
The case was meant to go to court on the 1st of June, and apparently a billion dollars were at stake. The duo sued Activision after being fired from Infinity Ward over bonus payments. Activision then counter-sued the pair, accusing them of stealing employees.
It’s unlikely we’ll ever hear the outcome.
Spotter5
Obviously had something to hide, then.
cc_star
Would be interesting to know the outcome, I presume the settlement will include gagging orders on both sides… although looking at the PR battle W&Z’s team have been waging it wouldn’t be surprising to see something leak.
Acti have remained relatively quiet in comparison so we’ve generally heard only one side through all this build up.
I think if it was nailed on a W&Z’s bravado would have had you believe they surely wouldn’t have settled, so there must be something somewhere in Activision’s favour.
The great point is that it’s all over and everyone can get on with making games again. YEY!
Lymmusic
Would be great to know, but both sides have been told not to say anything otherwise they will be bummed by binmen…
Paranoimia
So basically, guilty as charged, then.
rht992
And know to await the Social Network style thriller that’ll be in cinemas in 2015
gazzagb
It’s hard to judge who was in the right, and who was in the wrong, I’m sure neither party are innocent, but it does seem that Acti fired them unfairly/plotted against them.
Paranoimia
Generally, people/organisations only settle out of court if they know there’s a good chance of them being found guilty and the court awarding a much larger settlement.
To me, this indicates that Activision were very much in the wrong, and knew it. They probably went to court hoping that their team of high-priced lawyers would scare West & Zampella into backing down, but they had their bluff called.
cc_star
It was W&Z who took Activision to court.
If they were that sure, they would have just continued & not settled I’d have thought.
KeRaSh
Maybe they settled for a few millions less and thought they’d save some lawyer costs.
PoorPaddy89
A few million guaranteed could be considered more attractive that the possibility of nothing at all. It’s hard to judge it either way. All I know is I didn’t get any.
cc_star
Yeah but were Acti “plotting against them” because they were actively working against them including crashing the BlOps reveal with DLC announcements & that’s just what we know about never mind what might have come up. Now we’ll probably never know
Tomhlord
Biggest anti-climax in gaming history.
hazelam
i thought duke nukem forever took that honour.
TSBonyman
I wish i could buy my way out of any scrape like tacivision always seem to do.
Paranoimia
“tacivision” – if that’s deliberate, I like! :-)
TSBonyman
;)
hazelam
well, i’d imagine substantial sums of money changed hands and some lawyers made a bloody fortune.
The Lone Steven
How does one steal employees? I’m sure it is up to the employees to decide if they want to jump ship or not. Or did they kidnap them and force them to accept the contract?
Tis disappointing that we won’t know what the outcome was but i imagine it involved a lot of cash and a few fishes.
nofi
it’ll be in their contract to not go to another similar role without a six month gap, etc. it’s very common in most industries.
SpikeyMikey23
Hopefully we can start to find out what Respawn are upto