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Earlier this week, shocking news came down that Activision had fired Infinity Ward founders, Jason West and Vince Zampella, for “breaches of contract and insubordination.” Today, the former heads of the studio responsible for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare franchise has filed suit against Activision in a Los Angeles County Superior Court. According to the filing, the pair is demanding “substantial royalty payments” that Activision has not yet paid or is unwilling to pay them, and, as reported by IGN, the “contractual rights Activision granted to West and Zampella to control Modern Warfare-branded games.” Zampella and West’s attorney, Robert Schwartz was quoted by IGN as commenting, “Activision has refused to honor the terms of its agreements and is intentionally flouting the fundamental public policy of this State [California] that employers must pay their employees what they have rightfully earned.”
Continuing to state, “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.” Jason West also gave his perspective on the firing and injustice of not getting paid for their work: “We were shocked by Activision’s decision to terminate our contract. We pored our heart and soul into that company, building not only a world class development studio, but assembling a team we’ve been proud to work with for nearly a decade. We think the work we’ve done speaks for itself.” Following those sentiments up by saying, “After all we have given to Activision, we shouldn’t have to sue to get paid.” |
