More details came out today in the case of former Infinity Ward employees Jason West and Vince Zampella against Activision, with IGN posting a copy of the entire lawsuit. In the document, West and Zampella's representatives are even more scathing of Activision then they were in their press release announcing the suit.
“This lawsuit is solely and regrettably the result of the astonishing arrogance and startling greed of defendant Activision. Pantiffs Jason West and Vince Zampella are among the most talented and successful videogame developers in the world. They created for Activision two videogame franchises, Call of Duty and Modern Warfare, that became the most successful in the company's – indeed the industry's – lining Activision's pockets with billions of dollars in revenue and creating a die hard fan base in the millions. In November 2009, after two years of nearly 'round the clock work, Messrs. West and Zampella, and the rest of the Infinity Ward Studio delivered to Activision Modern Warfare 2 – a video game that has already been responsible for over $1 billion in sales and was hailed by Activision itself as the largest launch of any entertainment launch ever.”
Bobby Kotick “rewarding” Jason West, as depicted in the lawsuit.
“Just weeks before Messrs. West and Zampella were to receive the royalties for their hard work on Modern Warfare 2, Activision fired them in the hope that by doing so, it could avoid paying them what they have rightfully earned, and to seize control of the Infinity Ward studio, to which Activision had previously granted creative control over all Modern Warfare branded games and had, apparently, decided it no longer wanted to live with,” continued the suit. “Instead of thanking, lauding or just plain paying Messrs. West and Zampella 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.' It then summoned Mr. West and Mr. Zampella to a sham meeting two days ago at Activision's headquarters in Santa Monica, California, during which they were fired on the basis of false and trivial charges, and then quickly escorted out the back door.”
“Plantiffs are now forced to hire their own lawyers to bring this action to bring this action. Activision has refused to honor the terms of the agreement with Messrs. West and Zampella and is intentionally flouting the public policy of the state of this State that employers must pay their employees what they have rightfully earned. Instead, Activision has adopted the corporate strategy of forcing Messrs. West and Zampella to sue for their pay - in the hopes of either getting away with not having to pay them anything, or maximizing its leverage to reduce that pay. Such actions are not surprising, given that Activision is run by a CEO who is publicly quoted as believing that the best way to run a video game studio is to engender a culture of 'skepticism, pessimism, and fear' and who prefers to pay his lawyers rather than his employees.”
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