User blog:Smuff/Activision vs EA, West, and Zampella set to last eight more months + New Interview with Mark Rubin

It looks like we'll finally get to see the results of the Activision vs. West, Zampella and EA court case... Well, in eight months we will anyways. According to Joystiq, a judge has set a Los Angeles trial date of May 7, 2012, just one month before.

"I’m really looking forward to having our day in Court."

- Vince Zampella, former president of Infinity Ward

For those of us who don't know, Jason West and Vince Zampella seek $125 million in unpaid royalties from the sales of blockbuster game Modern Warfare 2 and wish to reclaim their contractual rights to the Modern Warfare brand. Activision claims that they fired both developers in March 2010 for illegally consorting with EA, and has counter-sued West, Zampella and EA for $400 million, claiming that EA worked through the to “hijack” West and Zampella from Infinity Ward.

Jason West and Vince Zampella, attempting to sue Activision for $125 million in unpayed loyalties, after both being fired by Activision.

Zampella and West collectively formed in 2010 and now have over 60 employees, 40 of which are former employees of Infinity Ward itself. The independent game studio is working on a new franchise for rival publisher Electronic Arts, but unlike the Call of Duty IP, owned by Activision, Respawn solely owns the rights to the IP this time around.

The November 8th release, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the first game Call of Duty game developed by Infinity Ward without West and Zampella, is expected to sell 25 million copies and generate over $1.2 billion for Activision, according to Michael Pachter, a somewhat unreliable video game analyst.

So, it looks like we may finally find out the results of this trial, however there still remains the oppertunity for both parties to settle out of court.

References
 * 1) Forbes - Activision Call of Duty Court Confrontation Set for May 7, 2012
 * 2) Joystiq - Infinity Ward's day in court: May 7, 2012

Category:News Category:Game news Category:Spetember 2011 news