A judge probably just ruined Acitivision’s day by ruling that Infinity Ward’s founders have some facts to support their claims against the publisher.
The lawsuit that former Infinity Ward head honchos Jason West and Vince Zampella filed against Activision is continuing to progress, slowly but surely. A judge in the case just ruled that there are facts to support the two’s claims, which means it’s that much closer to receiving a jury trial.
This is the original $34 million lawsuit that was filed back in March 2010, right after West and Zampella were dismissed from Infinity Ward by Activision. Originally, the suit was only focused on dealing with charges about “breach of contracts”, but in April 2011 the complaints were addended to include complaints of fraud.
These new fraud claims are based around an Activision contract that stated how, after Call of Duty 4 was completed, West and Zampella would have creative control over future Modern Warfare titles and they’d be furnished with an increased budget. According to West and Zampella, Activision had no intention of following through on these promises and always intended to fire the duo after CoD 4 was finished.
Because the judge ruled that allegations have merit means that, not only will Activision likely have to answer the charges, but that Bobby Kotick might even be called as a witness.
Zampella and West’s attorney, Robert Schwartz, was publicly gloating about this decision, even going so far as to say, “This can’t be good for Activision. They can’t be happy about this.”
Of course, Activision has its own $400 million lawsuit against the two men, that is full of allegations about how West and Zampella “hijacked” company assets at the encouragement of publisher Electronic Arts. If, however, the original lawsuit does go to trial, it’ll be interesting to see what happens with Activision’s suit based on how things proceed.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
