Activision Adds EA to $400 Million Infinity Ward Lawsuit

Activision fired a shot at its biggest rival this week, accusing fellow publisher Electronic Arts of "hijack[ing] Activision assets for personal greed and corporate gain."

In a Los Angeles court filing Tuesday, Activision asked for permission to amend its lawsuit against game developers Jason West and Vincent Zampella to include game publisher Electronic Arts. Activision alleges that the two Call of Duty creators conspired with EA to sabotage the franchise's success and break their contracts while employed at Infinity Ward, an Activision subsidiary.

Activision is seeking $400 million from the three defendant parties.

Kotaku has the full text of the 39-page document, which claims that the Medal of Honor publisher "set out to destabilize, disrupt and to attempt to destroy Infinity Ward."

"The negotiations between Electronic Arts and West and Zampella were structured with the design and the expectation that West and Zampella would “spin out” from Activision and would take significant numbers of key Infinity Ward employees with them to set up their own independent company," the lawsuit reads. "Electronic Arts would finance the illicitly-created start-up in exchange for an ownership interest or exclusive distribution rights to the content created by their new company, which would produce video games for Electronic Arts instead of Activision."

Directly after being ousted from Infinity Ward, West and Zampella formed a new studio called Respawn Entertainment that would be financed by Electronic Arts to the tune of "several million" in seed money. EA will also publish Respawn's titles.

In addition to those accusations, Activision also claims that West and Zampella worked to internally sabotage Call of Duty, saying the pair released a marketing video for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on the same day Treyarch had come out with a map-pack trailer for World of War. This would distract customers and "hurt Activision's marketing efforts."

The filing contains details of several key emails and text messages.

The real truth, however, was revealed by a series of text messages between West and an Infinity Ward employee contemporaneous with the video trailers' release. The employee texted West that "treyarch released their mp dlc video." West responded: "Super nice? We release our video? Crush and destroy with our video." The employee answered: "We already did. And . . . we already did." West's following comment: "Nice."

Activision also levies accusations at Creative Artists Agency, the talent agency that reps both West and Zampella, detailing several texts and emails sent by CAA agent Seamus Blackley. One email purportedly invited the two developers to a party at EA CEO John Riccitiello's house, saying "JR cooks a mean BBQ. I think we could accomplish some interesting chaos."

"This is a PR play filled with pettiness and deliberate misdirection," an EA spokesperson said to The LA Times in an e-mail. "Activision wants to hide the fact that they have no credible response to the claim of two artists who were fired and now just want to get paid for their work."

The lawsuit offers up some nasty words for both West and Zampella.

Although West and Zampella preferred to portray themselves – both to the public and within Activision – as game developers often forced to battle with corporate "suits," the reality was and is much different. They were small-minded executives almost obsessed by jealousy of other developers and the thought that another Activision game or studio might share their spotlight.

A court ruling on the filing is expected at some point in January.

See Also:

• Ousted Call of Duty Developers Respawn at Electronic Arts
• Activision Confirms Departures, Announces 2 Call of Duty Games