Activision / COD Black Ops

[[BlackDeath]]

Some amusing game news, since the new Activision boss who is more concerned about a profit margin rather than making quality products for entertainment fired 2 founders of Infinity War (Call of Duty creators, made all the CoD games except World at War), 33 other Infinity Ward employees followed suit and made their own new team and/or joined other development teams. Now Treyarch have taken the reins and it seems due to popularity of the modern franchise they are trying to make an imitation with CoD Black Ops but trailers aren't recieved that well so far. So on with another boycot due to principles.

[Serated]

Honestly, CoD is going the way of Pokemon. Remaking the same game over and over again with alternate systems and weapons, but its all the same crap anyway. Honestly, who has any sort of remaining hope for this series? I gave up on Halo a long time ago when I found spelling errors in it; why should Call of Duty receive any more benefit of the doubt?

And yes, I have been reading about this whole suit. The two guys that were fired started up their own company called Respawn Entertainment, and already have signed papers with EA. Like I didnt see that one coming.

[[BlackDeath]]

Activision has turned CoD into one giant cash cow, to innovation came when CoD4:MW was first released and I thorougly enjoyed that game and spent most of my gaming life compared to any other game on that alone and didn't bore me one bit. Now I didn't get the same feeling from MW2 although the story was good and left a huge opening for a trilogy the cinematics were amazing but as you said it's only a rehash of the it's predecessor.

The move to go over to EA works very well imo, I think they will be in good hands as EA always manage to maintain high quality. I just wish people wouldn't be so blinded by fanboy'ism and see the big picture here.

I am in the same boat as Halo with you, it seems a law has been governed by trilogies stating that the first will always be the best - well imo anyway. Halo reach looks interesting tbh and I havn't been interested in a Halo since... well... the first.

Anyway lets see where this goes. On the other hand is Activision still holding the rights to the new Medal of Honor or will that go to Respawn?

[Serated]

I heard those keys are going to go over to TreyArch too. TreyArch isnt particularly bad, but I dont think they are going to be making any innovative games anytime soon. Although if they made just like the Nazi Zombies, it would be hilariously addictive.

[[BlackDeath]]

The plot thickens:

Reminds me of Tecmo vs Tomonobu Itagaki law suit. This gives me a further resolve to boycott Activision games even more.

Originally Posted by Kotaku

Guarded doors, secret interrogations and broken promises are just the latest allegations laid out in the ongoing saga about the break-up between the world's largest game publisher and the people in charge of creating Modern Warfare 2.

Activision created a "police state," conducted secret "interrogations" of employees and held $54 million dollars hostage as they tried to threaten and cajole the team behind Modern Warfare 2 into making the next Modern Warfare game, according to an amended lawsuit filed in California today and obtained by Kotaku.

A group of nearly 40 past and present Infinity Ward developers banded together in April to file suit against the publishers of Modern Warfare 2 for half a billion dollars, alleging breach of contract and unpaid royalties.

An addendum to the suit filed today lays out what the former employees say happened to the bonus and royalties they were expecting. It also lowered what the group is asking from at most $216 million in punitive damages and unpaid bonuses, down from half a billion.

In March, according to the suit, Activision paid 40 percent of the Modern Warfare 2 bonus money to the team, but withheld the rest, demanding that Infinity Ward develop, produce, complete and publish Modern Warfare 3 by November 2011 to get the rest of the money.

The suit alleges that during the build up that led to the firing of West and Zampella, Activision forced Infinity Ward employees to submit to secret interrogations and told the employees not to tell anyone about them. The publisher also brought in security personnel to man the office exits, according to the suit.

Later that month, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick attending a meeting with Infinity Ward, promising them that they would receive their full bonus at the end of the month, but that never happened, according to the suit.

When a group of employees met with CFO Thomas Tippl in April to demand the bonus, according to the suit, Tippl responded "Get over it."

The suit says that had Activision not fired West and Zampella, withheld the bonus, created a hostile work place, not created a "police state-like atmosphere" they would have stayed on with the publisher.

A separate suit was filed by former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella in March, seeking $36 million unpaid royalties and alleging an "Orwellian," "pre-ordained" investigation designed to "manufacture a basis to fire" the studio founders.

There will be a hearing in front of a judge on Aug. 5 to see the trials of both suits against Activision will be consolidated into one trial. A trial date was set for May 23, two weeks before next year's E3 is set to get underway.

Activision has been contacted for comment. We will update the story with comment when they provide one.

www.kotaku.com