Topic: Activision Reaches Settlement With West, Zampella

[Chozo Ghost]

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/05/31/activision-settles-with-west-zampella.aspx

A settlement has been reached between Activision and former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella. An attorney for the case confirmed to Game Informer a settlement between the parties, which includes Activision, Jason West, Vince Zampella, and the Infinity Ward Employee Group, was reached this afternoon, but was unable to provide further details. The terms of the deal are strictly confidential.
"The company does not believe that the incremental one-time charges related to the settlement will result in a material impact on its GAAP or non-GAAP earnings per share outlook for the current quarter or the calendar year, due to stronger-than-expected operating performance in the current quarter," Activision said.

We may never know what the settlement was, but at least this chapter is finally closed and all sides can move on and make more COD and COD clones.

[broodwars]

Well that was anti-climatic. I was looking forward somewhat to hearing Bobby Kotick defend having plans in place to spy on and blackmail West & Zampella.

It reminds me of a scene from Hook: "...and I want my War!" 

[ejamer]

A quiet end, but sounds to me like an admission by Activision that they had no way in hell of winning this one.  Of course that doesn't mean they wouldn't drag it out as long as possible before paying to make their sins go away just because they can.

[TJ Spyke]

A quiet end, but sounds to me like an admission by Activision that they had no way in hell of winning this one.  Of course that doesn't mean they wouldn't drag it out as long as possible before paying to make their sins go away just because they can.

What makes you think Activision aren't the ones getting money? All the wording I have seen don't indicate who is paying who.

Brood, companies are allowed to look at the email accounts that they provide to employees, they legally own them. If Activision wanted to, all they had to do was tell West and Zampella to let them look at their company email accounts (not personal ones). It's been established in court too that company email accounts belong to the company and they can look at them anytime they want. From what we know, they had every right to look at them since West and Zampella were talking to EA while still under contract.

[Adrock]

What makes you think Activision aren't the ones getting money? All the wording I have seen don't indicate who is paying who.

This isn't a confirmation by any means, but it suggests that Activision settled and West/Zampella got the money.

[TJ Spyke]

From what we know, it's ridiculous that Zampella and West should get anything. They were breaching their contracts with Activision and bitched that Activision looked at their company emails (which ACTV is legally allowed to do).

[ejamer]

Of course we don't know, but it sounds like you must have been reading different reports than I saw.


Activision already paid $42 million dollars as a good-will gesture shortly before this was set to go to court, admitting they were wrong to withhold that money.  Activision brought on a new laywer just last month - odd behavior if you think you have a solid case and will win in court.  Activision has also been called out on behavior before the firing that, although you suggest might be totally legal, is likely illegal and certainly looks shady to the average Joe - not to mention the security company and MS contacts that were asked to help hack into email accounts.  And that's just the tip of the iceberg.


Maybe the settlement went the other way, but anyone trying to argue that Activision was in any way the harmed party here must have their heads stuck firmly... in the sand.

[Chozo Ghost]

From what we know, it's ridiculous that Zampella and West should get anything. They were breaching their contracts with Activision and bitched that Activision looked at their company emails (which ACTV is legally allowed to do).

There's the old TJ Spyke we all know and love. Always taking the side of big wealthy multi-billion dollar corporations over the little guys.

[ejamer]

From what we know, it's ridiculous that Zampella and West should get anything. They were breaching their contracts with Activision and bitched that Activision looked at their company emails (which ACTV is legally allowed to do).

There's the old TJ Spyke we all know and love. Always taking the side of big wealthy multi-billion dollar corporations over the little guys.

Don't confuse the issue: West and Zampella are not "little guys"... they're not even in the ballpark.

[Chozo Ghost]

Little compared to Activision, in any case.

Anyway, I'm 99.9% sure TJ is wrong anyway. Take this for example which is from the article:

A spokesperson for EA issued the following statement to Game Informer: “Activision’s refusal to pay their talent and attempt to blame EA were absurd.  This settlement is a vindication of Vince and Jason, and the right of creative artists to collect the rewards due for their hard work.”

Would EA have said this if Vince and Jason had been forced to pay Activision? And would Vince and Jason even have agreed to the settlement at all if it wasn't in their favor?

The sort of messed up Dystopian world TJ wants where people not only get screwed over but are also forced to pay their rapists for that "privilege" of being screwed over is fortunately not the world we live in (yet).

[TJ Spyke]

They were trying to cheat Activision and violate their contract. If I own a company and some of my employees are trying to violate their contract and negotiate with a rival company, I sure as hell wouldn't want to reward them. Maybe Activision shouldn't have tried hacking their email accounts, Activision legally owned them and should have just done their legal right of telling Zampella and West to hand them over.

[broodwars]

They were trying to cheat Activision and violate their contract. If I own a company and some of my employees are trying to violate their contract and negotiate with a rival company, I sure as hell wouldn't want to reward them. Maybe Activision shouldn't have tried hacking their email accounts, Activision legally owned them and should have just done their legal right of telling Zampella and West to hand them over.

The problem with what Activision did isn't whether it was legal or not, but that they had an entire strategy in place to block West; Zampella; and all the other employees of Infinity Ward from receiving the money that was legally theirs (+ the rights to the Modern Warfare license).  Then you also have Activision trying to structure bonuses for finished projects to only kick in at the conclusion of the next project, which IMO is a pretty shady practice.  So yeah, maybe what Activision was doing wasn't illegal, but it sure made them look guilty of what West & Zampella were accusing them of.

[TJ Spyke]

They never, EVER had the rights to Modern Warfare (since it's just part of the COD franchise). They never would have, or should have gotten the rights to it. Companies don't have to award bonuses, and they can choose when to give them out (and how) the way they want to and I don't see it as shady. Only douches should EXPECT to get a bonus. Maybe Activision should have done what they did in a different way, but Zampella and West are not innocent in this situation either.

[ejamer]

They never, EVER had the rights to Modern Warfare (since it's just part of the COD franchise). They never would have, or should have gotten the rights to it. Companies don't have to award bonuses, and they can choose when to give them out (and how) the way they want to and I don't see it as shady. Only douches should EXPECT to get a bonus. Maybe Activision should have done what they did in a different way, but Zampella and West are not innocent in this situation either.

When a bonus is negotiated and guaranteed as part of your contract, they you clearly aren't a douche to expect it when you legally meet all conditions on your side of the contract.


I'm done with this discussion.  There is no way people are going to change their views so it's not productive to point fingers and argue about stuff when none of us know all of the details.

[Chozo Ghost]

MW3 is little more than a copy and paste of MW2. Had Jason and Vince and the other 50 or so employees of Infinity Ward not been fired or left, then MW3 would have ended up being a far more innovative and probably better game than it is. Since such a huge chunk of Infinity Ward's best talent vanished Activision had to completely reconstruct the studio, and they also had to call in extra help from another studio called Sledgehammer. Its obvious these guys don't have the same talent or genius, because MW3 frankly isn't that innovative or great. The scrubs they called in to create MW3 obviously didn't have a clue what they were doing and they were in over their heads... the only reason MW3 wasn't a total flop was again because they copy and pasted MW2 over, then made a few tweaks and called it a day.

That said, I don't have high hopes for MW4 (or whatever the next Infinity Ward offering will be). The studio is gutted of its talent and even though the name may be the same, its not the same..... You could compare the current Infinity Ward with the current Rare, because the situation with Rare is very similar. Rare was once an excellent studio full of talent and genius, but now that all that is gone its just an empty husk.

At least Activision still has Treyarch, and for that reason I think the COD franchise still has a bright future, but every odd year from 2011 forward its going to introduce a game which is an absolute turd. Only in the even numbered years will there be a COD game that is awesome. Fortunately this year is an even numbered year which means a Treyarch game is coming (Black Ops 2).