oh Activisionpaws

itt an ongoing list of Activision fuckups

first there's this, which I will continue to believe is some asinine viral marketing stunt until proven otherwise:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2010/03/press-start-trouble-at-infinity-ward-missing-playstation-trophies/1

and then there's this, which is just despicable:

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2010/03/02/unofficial-kings-quest-sequel-taken-offline/

The IW thing is very real. You dont flippantly put viral marketing in an SEC filing.

"insubordination"? what could they possibly have done?

destroyed their culture, their economies, their honor?

referred to shareholders as camping n00bs

Its weird how Activision is totally unafraid to clean house when it comes to some of their big franchises. They told Harmonix to fuck off, gave Neversoft the proverbial boot and now theyre hating on IW.

Dont worry Actiblizz, you will always have Treyarch to kick around.

probably told activision they were making more games where you kill nazis, when they really weren't

activision didn't like all the weed refs in mw2

this makes me feel really bad for being a big WoW-head

In November 2009, the Company released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a game developed by one of the Company's wholly-owned studios, Infinity Ward. As noted above, Modern Warfare 2 was the best selling console title in the U.S. and Europe in 2009. Consistent with past practice, the Company intends to release a Call of Duty game in 2010 developed by another wholly-owned studio. The Company is concluding an internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward. This matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation. At present, the Company does not expect this matter to have a material impact on the Company.

maybe the two dudes were fucking with the next game somehow?

maybe the two dudes were fucking

look for Cole Hamels in the youtube Followers of Activision's Gay Sex

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/activision-holding-back-mw2-royalties

Website BingeGamer (via VG247) was told by a collection of unnamed sources that not a single penny of the $1bn generated by MW2 has been seen by Infinity Ward.

The report also states that the "insubordination" IW bosses Jason West and Frank Zampella appear to have been sacked for was caused by secret discussions with rival publishers.

well if they were looking to be head-hunted they got the first half of the transaction done well enough

the first sentence is pretty stupid and nonsensical.

not a single penny of the $1bn generated by MW2 has been seen by Infinity Ward.

O_O fuck me

srsly O_O that's insane

all infinity wardens shd jump ship to DICE and help out w/tht new medal of honor

activision can fuck my cock

i don't see the problem? or i do, morally, but i don't know what any IW bod could do about it. IW is a wholly owned "studio" of activision, itself majority owned by vivendi. if they were supposed to be bonused out based on MW2 sales, and that didn't happen, that's one thing. otherwise, so what? the company i work for, a multi-billion dollar conglomerate, did ok last year in a pretty dire environment, and i worked on something that brought in a shitload of money when it was done. what "pennies" do i "see" of that, beyond my salary?

or, take the people who worked on all the cgi on avatar. i bet they got paid to do it, a lot probably! whether they are further renumerated for the movie's runaway success is a basic contractual matter, right?

that's assuming that the "not a penny seen" story is even true. presumably the IWers were being well paid during the game's long development time, when none of that $1bn had come in yet.

Sounds like the time when bonuses are scheduled just hasn't rolled around yet - that stuff usually takes a while (they probably do all that kind of stuff once a year). I'm pretty sure Activision would meet their contractual obligations in regards to bonuses (if they have any, which they most probably do). Other than that, business is business - if you don't get along with your boss / do what they tell you, it'll usually get you fired (though it takes brass balls to fire your top employees who just produced a project that has apparently generated over a billion dollars).

i have to admit i'm kind of assuming the leads on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 are total douchebags.

it really is a shame that the King's Quest story is getting buried in here (albeit justifiably), because that is some straight-up Ebeneezer Scrooge shit right there.

My guess is it falls under the same kind of bookkeeping hokey pokey where people can say that a mega-blockbuster movie still hasn't made X-profit yet so you don't get paid until we hit that mythical point. Call our lawyers.

xps goole, i have to admit, in the back of my mind, I probably assumed that too

yeah the king's quest thing just baffles me

what goole says is reasonable but I only know from my limited experience that when we used to complete a deal (and I ws only ever involved in two biggies) that involved a large amount of work and all-nighters etc we (even lowly old me) wd receive at least a small bonus as a thank you and I know the bankers involved did too. granted my knowledge of the way developers' contracts is structured is ltd (lol metacritic based bonuses) and I might just have been lucky w/my old firm but I would expect the two lead developers and a no. of other staff to have received at least something as a gesture of goodwill for bringing the game out on time (esp. when the game was retailing at a price £15 more than any other and they KNEW it was going to sell millions upon millions), I'm sure there were a lot of all nighters towards the end. iunno, goole is right obv and I guess my strong objection was more based on the morality than the contract aspect

We’ve had the timing of this announcement planned for a while, but it seems like some kind of strange synchronicity that we’re revealing our existence just as all this trouble is happening at Infinity Ward. When you’re a mainstream developer, and you’ve made one of the most successful and profitable games of all time, and then just a few months later your publisher and parent company is willing to so bald-facedly mutilate your company, well, what conclusions can be drawn from that? If publishers of that size are so megalomaniacal as to be incapable of seeing the importance of a developer’s talent — instead believing that the game’s success is somehow due primarily to their brilliant marketing strategy or their CEO’s charming personality — then how will this ever change?

If Infinity Ward can’t be treated with respect, then who can?

from j.blow on his indie fund

I'm preferring to just believe that they were fired for delivering a unbalanced broken ass buggy horrible mess

Most of my job involves working with/on behalf of Activision. I can get a lot of free games, but none of them are things I want to play :(

brb, sending you my address

PAL copies of Transformers 2 and Madagascar coming right up!

brb, canceling an email

hahahahaaaaa

xpost TOO LATE YOU HAVE TO TAKE THEM NOW

HI DERE and jjjusten Will Play It

getting suuuuuued

Jason West and Vince Zampella, the men at the centre of this week's drama at Call of Duty developers Infinity Ward, have filed suit against Activision over claims they are owed "substantial royalty payments".

"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," said the pair's attorney, Robert Schwartz, of law firm O'Melveny & Myers. "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."

West and Zampella are coming out swinging. "We were shocked by Activision's decision to terminate our contract," Jason West says. "We poured 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."

"After all we have given to Activision, we shouldn't have to sue to get paid", Zampella adds.

can't wait for the awesome headline puns when this story makes the mainstream media

FIGHT HARDER, COMRADES!!

LLP IS ONLINE!

TANGO SUCKA!

i swear i heard similar shouting in bc2

x-posted from GAF

Wow that's a lot of Legalese. Okay, in case anyone doesn't feel like reading all that stuff:

WHAT HAPPENED: The two developers were promised royalties as part of their contract for Modern Warfare 2. They're claiming Activision fired them under false pretenses in order to avoid paying those royalties.

The lawsuit then gives background about the company, including alleging that Activision purposely gave Infinity Ward a small budget for Call of Duty in order to buy 30% of its stock for cheap since the small budget would keep them from fighting it.

It also states some things we all know; sales figures, revenue numbers, etc. West and Zampella (the two developers and plaintiffs) had only one year on their contract before MW2 started. They were reluctant to get an extension on their contract, but did so anyway because Activision promised complete control of IW AND creative control over any post-Vietnam Call of Duty and MW games that might be developed.

Blah, blah, blah; more sales figures and talks of how MW2 was praised upon release. Activision then launched the investigation of Zampella and West about a week after the release of MW2. They hired outside lawyers and investigators to question other employees (some of whom cried from anxiety) and threatened insubordination charges if the two plaintiffs tried to console the other employees.

West and Zampella then said they were going to talk to their lawyers, at which point they were told Activision would make things worse if they did. The two men were also never told what exactly they had done wrong at any given point during the investigation. Activision strung the investigation along, then gave the two IW guys about six hours to respond to the accusations. A couple days later, Activision announced the new Call of Duty games they want to make (which were posted in another article).

WHAT THEY WANT: The first claim is to about US$36 million in damages. Second, they also want control of the Modern Warfare franchise back, since that was what was promised. Third, they also say Activision cannot make any further MW games OR post-Vietnam Call of Duties set in the present, near future, or far future. Fourth, they feel that Activision owes them their royalties and bonuses regardless of whether or not their termination from IW was legitimate. And obviously, they want their attorney fees covered.

And that's about it. I may have misread the complaint a bit, so feel free to correct me

This story is definitely getting weirder by the day. Would be really crazy if this ends up going to trial. Also interesting that Activision bought 100% control of Infinity Ward for only $5m

What seems crazy to me is they didnt have an arbitration clause in their contracts. Seems like everyone has to sign those damn things these days, even the lowest of peons.

And they obviously sign them to avoid shit like the above being 100% public.

it's hard to say what working for "infinity ward" really means, as compared to working for activision proper. it's been described as a "wholly owned studio", which is kind of meaningless really. i don't know the history of IW being bought; it's possible the IW dudes thought they were -- and were encouraged to think that -- still what they always were, their own shop. but really were basically just another activision employee, maybe even lesser, in the fine print.

shit is pretty wild, i look forward to kotaku et al trying to be real legal journalists for a while.

don't usually spam but my colleague spoke with a lawyer about the case and i thought it was a pretty good piece....we didn't want to be talking out of our ass and we know this lawyer dude who broke it down:

http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/03/04/the-activision-lawsuit-what-it-means-and-where-it-s-going.aspx

RAMIREZ FILE THAT BRIEF

ramirez quit

i dont even know who you are

quick call the ambalamps chaser

I did some work for Activision and at the time, people talked as if getting and keeping good developers was their first priority. I guess those people aren't the ones making decisions any more.

great display name, lukas.

lol activision

(what I really mean is FUCSKGWRHAGIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH ACTIVISION but I am trying to be caaaallmmm)

its funny to watch the activision pr folks giving kotaku marching orders for the counterclaims pr blitz today