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[FullMetalx117]

Following the critical and financially successful release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007, Jason West (president, co-CCO, and CTO) and Vince Zampella (CEO) began contract negotiations with Activision. They promised to deliver Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in 2009, but in exchange asked for extremely large bonuses and creative control of the Call of Duty series. Activision agreed, but added a clause to the contract that should they be fired, the rights to Call of Duty would fall back to Activision.[10]

Following the execution of the contract in 2008, Activision began seeking ways to find reason to fire West and Zampella to trigger the new clause. This in turn led to West and Zampella look to means to make Infinity Ward a studio outside of Activision's control.[10] Events came to a head in February 2010 when Activision hired a lawfirm to investigate Infinity Ward. On March 1, 2010, West and Zampella were released by Activision for "insubordination", forfeiting the bonuses they had negotiated.[10] The pair went on to form Respawn Entertainment in April 2010 as an independent studio, through working closely with EA on a yet-announced project. Several dozen of Infinity Ward's employees resigned in the following months, many taking up positions at Respawn.[11][12]

West and Zampella had been replaced on an interim basis by Activision CTO Steve Pearce and head of production Steve Ackrich.[13] By November 2010, Activision had installed new management at Infinity Ward, and Vivendi chairman and CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy stated that Infinity Ward "got over" their problems and are fully reconstructed and that Activision is very happy with the result. The executive went on to say that there will be three studios working on the Call of Duty franchise including the newly formed studio Sledgehammer Games.[14][15]

Several lawsuits followed in the wake of West and Zampella's departure. The pair themselves initially filed suit against Activision shortly after their release to reclaim "substantial royalty payments" that Activision failed to pay them in the weeks leading up to their firing, estimated to be US$36 million;[10][16][17][18] this figure eventually rose to over US$1 billion by May 2012, based on Activision's SEC filings.[19] Activision countersued the pair in April 2010, calling their actions to fire them justified and asserting the two were "self-serving schemers".[20] Activision amended its suit in December 2010 to include EA as a defendant, stating that their competitor had worked with West and Zampella to "destabilize, disrupt and ... destroy Infinity Ward", and sought US$400 million in damages.[21][22] Separately, several former and current members of Infinity Ward under the name "Infinity Ward Employee Group" (IWEG) sued Activision for between US$75 – 125 million for unpaid bonuses for work on Modern Warfare 2 and an additional US$75–500 million in punitive damages.[23][24] Ultimately by May 2012, Activision had settled with the IWEG for US$42 million,[25] while private settlements were separately reached between Activision and EA, and between Activision, West and Zampella.[26]

Infinity Ward - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I just pulled that from the wiki. But back in the day this was some crazy, dramatic, unexpected news. Call of Duty went on to be bigger than ever...

 

[Zathalus]

Don't sign a contract with a company that states that if they fire you they get ownership of a valuable IP.

Companies don't care about you.

 

[Hypereides]

That clause was there for a reason. When Call of duty blew up in popularity he probably chose to execute order 66 immediately without hesitation. The worst part is that most big modern day c-suite executives seemed to have taken "inspiration" from Kotick's handling and tactics to leverage control over creatives. Its ironic how Kotick counter-sued Zampella and West projecting them to be "self-serving schemers". That was probably a Freudian slip.

Most Activision owned studios probably had some clause installed that would default them into CoD support studios if they didn't satisfy his absurdly high expectations or similar. Kotick is a clever scumbag.

 

[Tsaki]

Sounds that everyone got what they wanted in the end. CoD became bigger, the IWEG got payed and so did West and Zampella. Zampella has become now a high ranking executive at EA after the astronomical success of his studio, Respawn (for a second time counting Infinity Ward). Wonder why West left though. He could be up there with his colleague.

 

[ReBurn]

Don't sign a contract with a company that states that if they fire you they get ownership of a valuable IP.

Companies don't care about you.

Yeah, those guys had terrible lawyers if they weren't advised to not sign a contract that says they lose their stuff if they get fired.

I've had a company come after me for rights to software I wrote before working with them claiming that I created it while working there and that my "employment contract" said that they owned any and all IP I created while working for them. I specifically had my lawyer put in language to protect my property. The reason I left the company is that they wouldn't pay a stock equity grant outlined in that same document because they said it wasn't a binding employment contract due to being in an at-will state. The lawsuit was retaliation because they were angry when I quit after they stiffed me and they thought I was going to try to compete with them. They thought if they owned my property they could prevent it. They ended up dropping the case because if they pressed that I had an employment contract in an at-will state that they would have to acknowledge that they owed me 7.5% of their start-up that they were trying to sell.

 

[RagnarokIV]

Yes, proper Dick Jones tactics from Activision. Fucken amazing.

I'm cashing you out, Vince.

Love it.

 

[SirKicksalot]

Well yes, there is a reason why Kotick is Activision's CEO since 1991.

 

[EverydayBeast]

High opinion of COD4, the developers roles changed after that game and everything became a transaction rather than gameplay progression.!

 

[Chuck Berry]

Pepperidge Farm remembers West & Zampella