Activision vs. West/Zampella: The Battle for Infinity Ward

[Spider-Vader]

I really hope the IW crew can take the Modern Warfare franchise & it's story & characters with them to EA. I want to see the story continued & this time they won't have Activision rushing them resulting in a broke multiplayer.

 

[Darthphere]

That would be the best case scenario.

 

[BlackLantern]

I don't see it happening though....Publisher usually gets the property in cases like this, it's essentially the same as NBC keeping all of Conans characters

 

[Darthphere]

Yeah, like I said, it's the best case scenario but probably the most unlikely. If anything, Activision might say, keep the Modern Warfare name but we're keeping Soap and Capt. Price. Just to be ***** you know.

 

[Coca Cola Duracell Franklin.]

All EA needs to do is put "From the Creators of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare" in the commercial. They don't need the name.

 

[BlackLantern]

EA couldn't even do that if Activision retains ownership

 

[Coca Cola Duracell Franklin.]

EA couldn't even do that if Activision retains ownership

Actually, they can. You see that all the time in the videogame world.

The best example I can think of is back when Microsoft bought Rare during the last generation, they got Rare's IP and Nintendo kept the IP they had, i.e. "Donkey Kong Country."

Nintendo owns the "Donkey Kong" games, but that didn't keep the title from mention in advertisements or even the box-art itself, shown above.

 

[BlackLantern]

because Nintendo Ok'd that....don't expect Activision to be as amiable

 

[Darthphere]

I'd like to see more examples if you would humor me since "You see that all the time in the video game world".

 

[Coca Cola Duracell Franklin.]

I'd like to see more examples if you would humor me since "You see that all the time in the video game world".

Unreal Tournament 3 advertisement says "From the studio that brought you Gears of War"

[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21hp0Rbu_70[/YT]

Unreal Tournament 3 published by Midway, Gears of War published by Microsoft.

Freedom Fighters boxart:

EA published Freedom Fighters, Eidos published Hitman 2.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Gears of War is a poor example because even though it won't end up on the PS3, I'm pretty sure that Epic owns the Gears IP and Unreal IP as well

However, I do think it's allowed to use "From the Creators/Makers of [Insert Game Here]." Movies and comics do it all the time.

 

[BlackLantern]

Unreal and Gears are both developed by Epic Games, plus I think all those games used the Unreal engine, which is owned by Cliffy B and Epic games

Im all for those guys doing their own thing, but build your own rep IMO

 

[Nathan]

I like the name. Respawn Studios.

 

[Addendum]

Im all for those guys doing their own thing, but build your own rep IMO

I have no problem with people dropping what games they worked on. It's essentially saying "hey, if you liked these games I worked on, you might like this".

And if that game is successful, then it's furthering their rep as people can look at the string of quality games

 

[hippie_hunter]

Activision is now giving West and Zampella's royalties to remaining Infinity Ward employees.

Todd Aldermann has joined Respawn as Lead Designer.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Activision is now giving West and Zampella's royalties to remaining Infinity Ward employees.

Todd Aldermann has joined Respawn as Lead Designer.

 

[BlackLantern]

I wonder how the lawyers will look at that...the redistribution of royalties

 

[hippie_hunter]

Six more former Infinity Ward employees have joined Respawn.

 

[Soapy]

Four more leave. Senior designers Mohammad Alavi and Chad Grenier, designer Jason McCord, and programmer Chris Lambert.

http://kotaku.com/5523154/four-more-out-at-modern-warfare-studio-infinity-ward

 

[hippie_hunter]

George Broussard is saying that the number has gone from four to seven.

 

[BlackLantern]

Activision should write a book:

How to get employees to quit and make yourself look stupid in the process

I really do not see this going to a courtroom, Activision is going to want to save face or are they stupid enough to think this isn't making them look bad??

 

[hippie_hunter]

Another former Infinity Ward developer has joined Respawn, Francesco Gigliotti

 

[Soapy]

How likely do you think it is that Activision would try to stop Respawn's game from coming out? Like they did with Brutal Legend and another game I can't remember right now.

 

[Fading]

Activision is now giving West and Zampella's royalties to remaining Infinity Ward employees.

Todd Aldermann has joined Respawn as Lead Designer.

This is either a really smart (but dick) move, or really stupid. From Activision's PR perspective it can be seen as Activision paying what's owed without giving in to Zampella and West. Meanwhile Zampella and West might look like asses if they complain about their former employees getting the money and not them themselves. On the other hand, Zampella and West ARE owed some of that money, and while Activision may have paid the royalties they still left out paying some of it to parties it owes it to. So what happens if the court says Activision owes them money still? Does Activision take back some of it from the Infinity Ward employees, or do they just pay more on top of that and come out deeper in the hole?


Activision is just doing a piss poor job handling this from top to bottom. They fire the first shot in a way that makes them look like an evil, unnecessarily greedy corporation, and lose most of the employees from a big money making branch to boot. Then to save face they further complicate matters and might even come off looking worse. you'd think it'd be far less of a hassle to have done the right thing and just have paid everyone what they owed them. I mean they just earned over half a billion dollars from MW2, and WoW earns more than most small countries, they're not hurting for money. Whatever Activision tried to penny pinch from not paying royalties is going to be far outshone by how gamers, the gaming press, and especially developers once thinking about forming a partnership with Activision will view them. Plus...they still ended up paying the royalties anyway.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Two more have joined Respawn and three more have left Infinity Ward.