Activision Says No Merit To Infinity Ward Employee Group Lawsuit

A suit filed Tuesday against Activision Blizzard and its Activision Publishing division in California Superior Court, Los Angeles, by a group of current and former employees at its Infinity Ward development studio who are seeking $75 million-$125 million in unpaid bonuses was “without merit,” the publisher said Wednesday.

Activision “retains the discretion to determine the amount and the schedule of bonus payments” for the game in question, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and “has acted consistent with its rights and the law at all times,” it said in a written statement. “We look forward to getting judicial confirmation that our position is right,” it said.

The publisher fired Jason West and Vince Zampella as president and CEO of Infinity Ward early last month, claiming they committed “breaches of contract and insubordination” (CED March 4 p7). West and Zampella quickly sued Activision, accusing their ex-employer of breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and wrong termination in violation of public policy (CED March 5 p5). Activision countersued, accusing them of “embarking on a secret trip by private jet to Northern California, arranged by their Hollywood agent, to meet with the most senior executives of Activision’s closest competitor.” The rival was revealed to be Electronic Arts when Respawn Entertainment, the new studio started by West and Zampella, announced a global publishing and distribution deal with EA (CED April 13 p11).

Since the initial suits, several Infinity Ward employees left the company. Activision declined to specify how many employees had left Infinity Ward since the start of the dispute, but the number is believed to be about 25-30. At least some of them, along with several employees still at Infinity Ward at the time the suit was filed on Tuesday, were named as plaintiffs in the suit. The employees were collectively referred to as the Infinity Ward Employee Group, 38 people who the suit claimed represented “a significant portion of the members of the creative team” under West and Zampella that created the game Modern Warfare 2. Twenty-one of the 38 plaintiffs were ex-Infinity Ward employees and 17 were still at the company when the suit was filed, Bruce Isaacs, an attorney at Wyman & Isaacs who is representing them, told Consumer Electronics Daily. But he said, “a few more have since resigned."

The plaintiffs claimed that as part of a bonus plan, they were to be paid bonuses as long as the game in question was delivered to Activision in November 2009, which they did. They were “entitled” to a “bonus pool” of at least $118 million for Q4 2009 alone as part of the plan, they claimed. But Activision only paid about $28 million of that money, and was “withholding and refusing to pay” the rest of the money owed, they claimed. Activision did that “in order to coerce the Infinity Ward employees to remain at their jobs with Activision, even though many of them did not want to do so,” and complete the game Modern Warfare 3 even though completion of that title was not required by them, they claimed. For that, they requested punitive damages of “at least” an additional $75 million-$500 million.

The plaintiffs accused Activision of breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, unjust enrichment, and violating California labor law. They also asked for interest of “at least” $7.5 million-$12.5 million on the amount owed under the bonus plan, as well as continued “profit participation and royalty” for the game Modern Warfare 2, and payment of its legal costs. A case management conference was scheduled for Aug. 16.