Tap-Repeatedly
  • Features
    • All Features
    • A Weekend With
    • Dark Souls Diaries
    • Death in Fire
    • Diary Of A Call Girl
    • Games of the Year
    • Kermdinger Chronicles
    • MrLipid’s Closet of the Odd
    • My Idea of Fun
    • Quest for 7:00 on the Nordschleife
    • Superficially Relevant
    • Tap Dance
    • Tap vs. Tap
    • Tapping Down Memory Lane
    • The Log of Shame
  • Editorials
    • Tap Editorials
    • Culture Clash
    • Celebrity Guests
  • Reviews
    • All Reviews
    • Impressions
    • Revisited
    • FFC Archives
  • News
    • News
    • Ephemera
    • Site Announcements
  • Forum

A&B vs. W&Z, Round Four

01/05/2011|Matt "Steerpike" Sakey|News1
Home » Home » News » A&B vs. W&Z, Round Four

Former Infinity Ward (Call of Duty, Modern Warfare) founders Jason West and Vince Zampella, now founders of Respawn Entertainment, are calling foul over their foe Activision/Blizzard’s latest legal tactic.

The pair were fired from Infinity Ward because – according to A/B – they were illegally colluding with EA to sell the company… which wasn’t theirs to sell. You doubtless remember the crazy news flood that followed. West and Zampella sued Activision for unpaid royalties, wrongful termination, etc etc etc.

Just last month, Activision countersued, using the allegations about contract breach and attempts at marketing sabotage. W&Z are moving to block the expansion of the suit, arguing the delay could, break them: they’re paying for the litigation out of their own pockets and since Activision still owes both men billions in Modern Warfare 2 royalties, those pockets may not be as deep as you think.

Of course West and Zampella are already outrageously rich, but this is a shrewd move on Activision’s part. West and Zampella are claiming it’s suspicious that Activision/Blizzard waited six months to file this countersuit, but there’s probably not much there there. A/B’s lawyers understand about timing things to your advantage. Not only will the countersuit likely delay the start of trial until after this year’s E3 (it was scheduled to start a week before, and A/B doesn’t want to go into the biggest show of the year with that publicity), it will also hurt their opponents financially. West and Zampella, naturally, do want Activision to go into E3 under a cloud… and they want this over with.

I’ve said before and I say again: West and Zampella are probably guilty of the stuff Activision says they are. The success of their case hinges on how Activision/Blizzard handled the build-up to D-Day, when the pair got fired and Infinity Ward imploded. Stories of locked room interrogations lengthy and harsh enough to drive employees to tears, threats, file stealing, thugs stationed in the office… on these things, if proven, a case may hinge.

I’d be fascinated to sit through this trial, but the trial will never happen. Even this latest move is the wrangling leading up to a quiet out of court settlement.

More than West and Zampella, I feel badly for the other Infinity Ward employees who earned but never received their Modern Warfare 2 royalties. Of course, a group of them are suing as well, so they might yet see some satisfaction.

Send an email to the author of this post at steerpike@tap-repeatedly.com.

01/07/2011 Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

About the author

Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

Tap-Repeatedly Overlord Steerpike is a games industry journalist and consultant. His earliest memories are of video games, and hopes his last memories will be of them as well. He’s a featured monthly columnist with the International Game Developers Association, and is internationally published in an assortment of dull e-Learning texts and less dull gaming publications. He also lectures on games at various universities.

Related Posts

  • Why The Emerald Dream Can’t Be An Expansion
    Why The Emerald Dream Can’t Be An Expansion08/13/2014
  • A/B vs. W&Z, Final Round
    A/B vs. W&Z, Final Round06/01/2012
  • Langdell Over the Edge?
    Langdell Over the Edge?10/05/2010

Popular Posts

  • Impressions: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
    Impressions: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim11/12/2011
  • PC Gaming Diagnosed with Lung Cancer
    PC Gaming Diagnosed with Lung Cancer02/18/2010
  • Impressions: Star Wars: The Old Republic
    Impressions: Star Wars: The Old Republic10/05/2011
← Shafer and Stern Join Stardock
Celebrity Guest Editorial: Drew Davidson! →

One Response to A&B vs. W&Z, Round Four

  • Ajax19 01/05/2011

    Activision’s lawyers know what they are doing.

    The counter-suit is a Litigation 101 move.  So long as there is some merit to the claim, it’s worth doing, especially in a case like this.  Activision has the much deeper pockets here.  The counter-suit will not only push back the trial date, but will likely involve additional discovery (documents to be reviewed, depositions, written responses, etc.) that will pile up even more legal fees (fat loots!).  The counter-suit also gives them another chip in the game during settlement discussions, since any meaningful settlement would have to involve the dismissal of the counter-suit.

    It’s very unlikely that West and Zampella will be able to show enough prejudice by the delayed filing to get it kicked for that.  While judges don’t always like these types of games, unless the other side is breaking some established procedural rule, which Activision doesn’t appear to be here, they don’t tend to want to kick claims on their face.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Log In


Lost your password?
Register
Forgotten Password
Cancel

Register For This Site

A password will be e-mailed to you.


Tap Us

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on SteamFollow Us on RSS

Tap At Random

Boomblastica

Boomblastica

03/05/2012|Amanda "AJ" Lange|Reviews5
Alliance of Awesome: Bits ‘n’ Bytes Celebrate Gaming 2011

Alliance of Awesome: Bits ‘n’ Bytes Celebrate Gaming 2011

09/19/2011|Gregg B|Alliance of Awesome
End of Round

Gregg B’s Games of 2016

01/13/2017|Gregg B|Features, Games of the Year12
Moebius: Empire Rising

Moebius: Empire Rising

04/23/2014|Amanda "AJ" Lange|Reviews1
Steerpike’s Games of 2014: Unfinished

Steerpike’s Games of 2014: Unfinished

01/12/2015|Matt "Steerpike" Sakey|Games of the Year11

Blogroll

  • A Hardy Developer's Journal
  • Acid for Blood
  • Dubious Quality
  • Electron Dance
  • Fanboy Comics
  • Plot is Gameplay's Bitch
  • The Experimental Gameplay Project

Tap Categories

Tap Archives

Follow Us on RSSFollow Us on SteamFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on YouTube

Tap-Repeatedly finally updated the footer.
Tap-Repeatedly likes oatmeal cookies.
Tap-Repeatedly prefers they have no raisins.

Contact

Your message was successfully sent. Thank You!

Tap-Repeatedly Supports

Search Tap

Tap-Repeatedly Remembers

Brad “Doublesauce” Boivin
Bill “The Game Doctor” Kunkel
Ethan “Finkbug” Sicotte

Copyright © Tap-Repeatedly. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication or distribution prohibited.
Some copyrighted material appears on this site under Fair Use.
If you believe a copyrighted work appears inappropriately, please contact steerpike@tap-repeatedly.com.