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Activision Updates IW/EA Lawsuit: Secret Meetings, Backstabbing Alleged

F

FunnyBunny

Member
Activision has filed a motion to amend its lawsuit against West/Zampella and EA. Joystiq has a great summary, but the 70 page document is worth reading. If it's true, I feel badly for Activision.

Activision alleges that West and Zampella continued colluding with Electronic Arts, going so far as to "covertly copy certain materials." Quotes from an email between West and Zampella include comments like, "Dunno how to scan secretely" and "Probably better to just photocopy and fedex."
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The amendment also alleges that West and Zampella refused to cooperate with other studios at Activision; one scenario -- also reinforced by documents, in this case, some text messages -- saw Infinity Ward releasing a Modern Warfare 2 video on the same day as a World at War DLC video, with the intent to "crush and destroy" Treyarch's marketing efforts. A series of text messages between West and an unnamed Infinity Ward employee reveals another story. The unnamed IW employee texted West, "treyarch released their mp dlc video." West responded, "Super nice? We release our video? Crush and destroy with our video." The unnamed employee replied, "We already did. And . . . we already did" to which West concluded, "Nice."
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Activision alleges West and Zampella even tried blocking the company's attempt to payout bonuses to IW employees to poison the well. It's good reading:

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/12/21/activision-claims-ea-and-former-iw-execs-schemed-to-inflict-ser/
 
U

user_nat

THE WORDS! They'll drift away without the _!
It's not as fun when someone other than Kotick appears to be the evil one.

Poor guys must be pretty upset that Black Ops has been fairly successful.
 
dream

dream

Member
ShockingAlberto said:
I actually kind of believe that second part.
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I don't have any doubt, really. IW has always been incredible dicks to Treyarch...even publicly.
 
F

FunnyBunny

Member
Reading between the lines, it appears some of IW employees have turned on West/Zampella. The motion includes "as Activision has been informed" several times.
 
L

LiK

Member
Y2Kev said:
Activision is going to destroy them.
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post-82-126592790552.jpg
 
B

Blueblur1

Member
That last part about them stating that the money should go to just them is ridiculous. I'm looking forward to seeing how this continues to play out.
 
T

TemplaerDude

Member
Meh, I can kind of see where they are coming from, they make this fucking swell IP and then Activision grabs and whores it out to some shitty studio with no god damn imagination that just rips all of their ideas.

They don't really have to be dicks about it though. I don't see this going well for them.
 
G

GillianSeed79

Member
I bet this was like that kids in the hall sketch where they all just walked around Activition's office pretending to crush each others' heads with their fingers.
 
R

rosjos44

Member
TemplaerDude said:
Meh, I can kind of see where they are coming from, they make this fucking swell IP and then Activision grabs and whores it out to some shitty studio with no god damn imagination that just rips all of their ideas.

They don't really have to be dicks about it though. I don't see this going well for them.
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I would be upset too. Many software developers get the shaft while management reaps the awards. This is why I wish studios like IW and other big developers stayed away from major publishers. But is that possible to do anymore? I doubt it.
 
E

Effect

Member
The IW hates Treyarch thing has been known for a while. Treyarch wasn't even allowed to put their logo on Modern Warfare Reflex after porting it (something IW I believe said wasn't even possible) as the most recent example I think. That they would actively try to hurt them isn't surprising.
 
J

jonnybryce

Member
This is juicy as hell.

I hate to say that I think Activision is in the right here. Healthy competition or malicious sabotage - releasing the video isn't a huge deal. Meetings with EA and giving them secret info? That's crazytown.

It's understandable and believable that these guys would feel like they were at the top of the world and would entertain offers with other companies, even if it is against contract. To leak info is unacceptable though.
 
Y

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
It's amazing what people send over their corporate emails.

I would imagine W/Z are hoping the court gives them brownie points for Activision being a big mean corporation that "interrogated" them in a room for a weekend and forced them to work with Treyarch.

But, yeah, they're screwed. And, honestly, they kind of look bad!
 
F

FunnyBunny

Member
Kyoufu said:
That is pretty awesome. I am not a fan of Treyarch. I hope West/Zampella win.
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Glad you're rooting for two guys who allegedly tried to prevent their own employees from being paid bonuses. Yikes.

It's hard to root for anyone in this story. They all sound like jerks.
 
N

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
IW betrayed itself, they became huge dicks some time before CoD4 came out. Completely ignoring the PC fanbase too
 
L

Loxley

Member
Even if that shit is true, I still feel no remorse for Activision. I have to imagine that West and Zampella wouldn't do this sort of thing completely unprovoked, they aren't 3rd grade bullies who enjoy picking on people for no reason. If Activision's management decisions are what caused them to behave like assholes, then both parties are at fault from the way I see it.
 
K

Kyoufu

Member
FunnyBunny said:
Glad you're rooting for two guys who allegedly tried to prevent their own employees from being paid bonuses. Yikes.

It's hard to root for anyone in this story. They all sound like jerks.
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I'll never root for Activision/Treyarch. Why would I?
 
D

dwebo

Member
It's too bad so much of that scribd document is redacted (or at least the juicy bits from about page 20 on). :(
 
S

speculawyer

Member
What the . . . ?

This is sounding crazy. I'm starting to wonder if criminal charges are applicable to some people now.

Well . . . this will make for many months, if not years, of entertainment.
 
Y

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Don't forget about how Infinity Ward was forced to sell to Activision after the Super Douche comment was upheld via the Retrostitution Clause in the Thirdest Court of Appeals on Planet Zedonia.
 
J

jonnybryce

Member
chubigans said:
Oh wow.

toolazytotype1.jpg
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What. The. Fuck.

Send them to jail! Didn't most of IW follow these dudes to start some new studio, Reborn or some shit? Did the employees that followed them have any idea this happened? :lol
 
H

Havok

Member
Can't say I'm surprised. Infinity Ward has never really behaved professionally, especially towards its parent company (I can't fucking believe nobody was fired for the Senior Super Douche thing). People might hate it, but it seems like Activision is in the right here.

Say what you will about Treyarch's development skills, but at least they realize what is expected of them as an owned development studio and don't act like children throwing a tantrum about it. It garners them a lot of respect in my eyes.
 
F

Freedom = $1.05

Banned
Yeah, IW hating on treyarch goes back to before even cod4 was out. When they went around demoing the game the exe file for that game was "cod3.exe." when asked about it, they replied something along the lines of "this is the real cod3." I mean, I get that they were not pleased about cod3 being out of their hands but be grownups about it, sheesh.
 
D

D2M15

DAFFY DEUS EGGS
Loxley said:
Even if that shit is true, I still feel no remorse for Activision. I have to imagine that West and Zampella wouldn't do this sort of thing completely unprovoked, they aren't 3rd grade bullies who enjoy picking on people for no reason.
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Then you haven't met West and Zampella.

Pretty much the entire sordid story of the IW/Acti mess was posted on Veracious Shit's twitter months ago.
 
N

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
Loxley said:
Even if that shit is true, I still feel no remorse for Activision. I have to imagine that West and Zampella wouldn't do this sort of thing completely unprovoked, they aren't 3rd grade bullies who enjoy picking on people for no reason. If Activision's management decisions are what caused them to behave like assholes, then both parties are at fault from the way I see it.
Click to expand...
What exactly could the reason be that they don't want to pay their employees? You know, the people that make their visions come true? Other than putting that cash into their own pocket as stated above there could be very little else that I can imagine

jonnybryce said:
What. The. Fuck.

Send them to jail! Didn't most of IW follow these dudes to start some new studio, Reborn or some shit? Did the employees that followed them have any idea this happened? :lol
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That's the best part, if one of the new Respawn employees are reading this
 
E

Effect

Member
Loxley said:
Even if that shit is true, I still feel no remorse for Activision. I have to imagine that West and Zampella wouldn't do this sort of thing completely unprovoked, they aren't 3rd grade bullies who enjoy picking on people for no reason. If Activision's management decisions are what caused them to behave like assholes, then both parties are at fault from the way I see it.
Click to expand...

Doesn't have to be anything like that. They could simply gotten/be greedy as hell and thought their shit didn't stink. They could have wanted their cake and someones else's cake just because they could. I'm not really cheering Activision on either just this doesn't mean they provoked this.
 
M

Munin

Member
corkscrewblow said:
That's hilarious. Treyarch deserve it for being shitty devs.
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Yeah all these employees and their families totally deserve being fucked over by 2 egoistical dicks who probably had little to contribute to the success of their own games.
 
C

Chrange

Banned
Bad blood between IW and Treyarch? How surprising...

I mean the end credit song for MW made fun of Treyarch and told fans to wait for the real sequel or some nonsense.
 
R

rosjos44

Member
jonnybryce said:
What. The. Fuck.

Send them to jail! Didn't most of IW follow these dudes to start some new studio, Reborn or some shit? Did the employees that followed them have any idea this happened? :lol
Click to expand...

Yea but Activision has to provide proof that actually happened. Not put words on a document and said "This happened". Now they said that they have some IW employees saying this happened? well then they have a reasonable shot.

I think Activision is playing their cards right. WHat I mean is they are playing them well enough to make the two IW people look like the bad guys more so than them.
 
N

Nicktals

Banned
Just look at how the Wii versions were handled/sabotaged. It obviously wasn't in Activision's best interest. It was egos leading people to acting like asshats.

Not that Activision is guilt free...But those 2 guys are obviously way too full of themselves.
 
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