Activision Suing EA Over Call of Duty Scuffle

Demiurge

Activision Suing EA Over Call of Duty Scuffle

Publisher alleges rival plotted to destroy the Call of Duty franchise.

December 21, 2010

Activision today filed a proposed first amended cross-complaint alleging rival Electronic Arts conspired with former Infinity Ward executives Jason West and Vince Zampella to "derail Activision's Call of Duty franchise, disrupt its Infinity Ward development studio, and inflict serious harm on the company."

In April, Activision originally countersued West and Zampella for breach of contract, claiming the two executives met with one of the publisher's closest competitor who was not identified. This amended complaint now claims, after supplying substantial evidence, that this competitor was Electronic Arts, whom Activision says "intentionally interfered with contracts, engaged in unfair competition, and aided and abetted breaches of fiduciary duty by the executives."

If the court approves this proposed amended complaint, Electronic Arts would be added as a cross-defendant in the West/Zampella countersuit.

The complaint alleges current Electronic Arts COO John Schappert covertly called Jason West and urged West and Zampella to meet with EA CEO John Riccitiello despite knowing that both developers were under contract with Activision for two more years. West and Zampella were allegedly instructed to continue discussions with Riccitiello on e-mail threads separate from their Infinity Ward accounts.

Riccitiello also allegedly met with Seamus Blackley of Creative Artists Agency, a talent agency, to court West and Zampella from Activision. In August 2009, the suit claims Zampella agreed to meet with Blackley, and through an e-mail following their meeting the next day wrote: "I'm stoked about your options. JR cooks a mean BBQ. I think we could accomplish some interesting chaos."

The complaint states,"Activision is informed and believes that the negotiations between Electronic Arts and West and Zampella were structured with the design and the expectation that West and Zampella would 'spin out' from Activision and would take significant numbers of key Infinity Ward employees with them to set up their own independent company so that Electronic Arts could make another run at competing with Activision."

Highlighting examples of West and Zampella's continued insubordinate conduct at Infinity Ward, Activision later says the two developers were "small-minded executives almost obsessed by jealousy of other developers and the thought that another Activision game or studio might share their spotlight." Activision says West and Zampella were "motivated by envy and personal greed" and even went so far as to intentionally release game trailers for Modern Warfare 2 the same day Treyarch posted promotion videos for downloadable content for Call of Duty: World at War.

Here is a transcript of text messages between Jason West and an unnamed Infinity Ward employee:

The employee texted West that "treyarch released their mp dlc video." West responded: "Super nice? We release our video? Crush and destroy with our video." The employee answered: "We already did. And . . . we already did." West's following comment: "Nice." Thus, West's own words reveal his intentional strategy to "crush and destroy" his fellow developers at Treyarch.
Activision also believes that West and Zampella attempted to block other Infinity Ward employees from receiving financial incentives that would "undercut West and Zampella's efforts to lure those employees away (in violation of their own employment contracts) when the time came to spin off."

The suit alleges, "In order to make it unlikely that these employees of Activision's Infinity Ward studio would remain with Activision, West and Zampella attempted to block those employees from receiving significant equity grants and/or other compensation, suggesting instead that Activision provide the additional compensation to West and Zampella alone, not to the many valued employees to whom Activision was offering this extra compensation."

The complaint also states that West and Zampella refused to sign standard exit documents representing that they had returned all Activision property, including computer code. Electronic Arts then looked to extract confidential information from the two, including information about the "Modern Warfare 2 marketing plans and how Electronic Arts could make a 'COD Killer,' a game to rival Call of Duty. This was a blatant attempt to get an unfair advantage for EA's Call of Duty rival, Battlefield: Bad Company."

Activision is seeking $400 million in actual and punitive damages from EA and West and Zampella, including profits Activision would have made but for EA's interference, costs incurred in rebuilding the affected studio, and damages suffered as a result of delays and disruptions.

IGN has reached out to Electronic Arts for comment. The court will decide in January if the publisher will be added to the existing lawsuit. The trial date between Jason West, Vince Zampella, and the Infinity Ward Employee Group vs. Activision is currently set for May 23, 2011.

Update: Electronic Arts VP of Corporate Communications Jeff Brown sent IGN the following statement in response to the complaint:

This is a PR play filled with pettiness and deliberate misdirection. Activision wants to hide the fact that they have no credible response to the claim of two artists who were fired and now just want to get paid for their work.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/114/1141431p1.html

Toxis

D Rama. I wish IW did black ops tho if for nothing else, the servers wouldn't be garbage.

mutelight

Funny how Activision wasn't sued when they stole top people from Visceral, to work at Blizzard. Kotick is butthurt and showing his true colors as a money grubbing rat. They will still make Call of Duty 8 in the next year or two to go with Guitar Hero 10.

shepx2

Man, this just keeps getting more interesting.