Activision and Electronic Arts Settle on Infinity Ward Debacle

To follow up with my earlier post about Respawn Entertainment at E3; new developments regarding the lawsuit between the biggest publishers in the industry has pointed to it being resolved. What does this have to do with Respawn, you ask?

If you haven’t been following the case, Jason West and Vincent Zampella were the founders of Infinity Ward under Activision control. These guys were fired for a reason, so what is it? The lawsuit between them and Activision brought EA into the mix after reportedly being in talks to break contract with their parent company to join Electronic Arts. So why did all this happen in the first place?

Activision: "It's EA, get him!"

Royalties weren’t paid to the crew at IW supposedly, so that’s what led Zampella and West to “be lured away by Electronic Arts”.  $400 million was to be held accountable for the “damages and disruptions” on Activision’s part, but the lawsuit was finally settled upon today.

Modern Warfare 2 skyrocketed Activision’s sales, Jason West and Vince Zampella won’t forget it. The lawsuit between the two is still scheduled to hit the courtroom on May 29th.

Activision even hired a new lawyer for the trial against West and Zampella’s claims; he even motioned to postpone the trial due to the settlement today between Activision and EA; it was denied.

The 40 or so that left IW after Zampella and West were fired? They want their royalties just as much so they joined them for the lawsuit. There is $350 million being seeked by the group in unpaid royalties. The funny thing about that is that it’s effectively Respawn’s starting developers v. Activision. The case is formerly West v. Activision, but that sounds better, haha.

A large group of former IW employees, including West and Zampella want blood, well, money

Bloomberg has a full report on the mess and I gotta say, it’s pretty interesting. Rumors have pointed mainly towards Activision being the bad guys, especially considering news broke today about them paying to dig up dirt on the two former heads. Whatever really happened might not be said in court on the 29th May and whether or not someone’s terms are met or something’s settled upon remains to be seen.

Who’s telling the truth? I guess we’ll find out in less than two weeks!

A lot of what’s brought up, mostly from West and Zampella about the royalties and promised creative freedom leaves a lot to be discussed. Comment below if you have an opinion on the subject.