May 8th, 2012
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It appears Activision may have violated a Memorandum of Understanding from Infinity Ward which could land the company in legal trouble.
The gist of the story (which can be read in full at Game Informer) is that Infinity Ward’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) states that any Call of Duty games set after Vietnam will be exclusive to Infinity Ward. This includes any modern day, near future or distant future settings. As you now know, Black Ops 2 will take place in the year 2025.
“Considering that the trial is yet to happen, it’s unclear if Activision could land itself in legal trouble thanks to Black Ops II’s futuristic setting. Game Informer spoke with Eric Chad, an intellectual property attorney with the firm Merchant & Gould. Regarding Activision’s punishment if Zampella and West win the lawsuit, Chad said “[Pulling Black Ops II from the shelves] is likely a possible remedy.” Read the full report at Game Informer.
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Activision will probably pay off IW. Even if BO2 were to be pulled, a new one would pop out in a year or so anyway.
ACTIVI$ION are fucking lairs and whores.
They milk CoD. They broke the contract with IW and rushed MW2 and kicked out the CEOs. Now they are breaking this.
I hope they lose the trial if there will be one.
Dosen’t Activision own infinity ward? Was this contract made when they were an independent developer?
This contract was made 3 years after IW was bought by activision and was for the 2 co-founders and owners of IW. Their time with activision had come to an end (while they still owned IW, they where under no obligation to continue to run it, direct a game or even make another CoD) and while they wanted to make more games, they wanted to shift away from CoD.
Activision said no, you need to work on CoD and the owners said the company and its employees where tired of the franchise (understandably). So a contract was made. The contract stated that if they shipped MW2 before Nov 12th and its sales where similar (or better) than Mw1, they would recieve the following.
:: They would 51% own the rights to IW and its employees. While activision would still have a share in there, the final word would be with the owners. This ment if they wanted to go indepentant from activision or even say no to more CoD, they could.
:: Royalties based off of the sales from the game. The royalties earned for the studio where somewhere in the tune of, $50m so its not chump change,
:: The rights to ALL call of duty games based in current times or past. Anything 1980s era and below could be made without any the approval of the owners. This means if any one wants to make a CoD involving desert storm or beyond, they need the written approval of both owners.
CoD MW2 shipped 2 days before the deadline to record breaking sales. everyone was happy. Activision approached IW with a deal. IW said they wanted to work on a different game thats not CoD. Activision said they would live to give the development of MW3 to Sledgehammer games, but while that studio was being made ready to make MW3, could IW start on it to transfer it. It would be a 5-6 month project than transfer hands and Activision would let them work on a demo for a new game to pitch to them at their expense.
It was during the development that the owners of IW where seeking advice from a close friend of 15 years (who worked on the BF series at ea) about what a good genre to break into was. He recomended they see a talent lawyer agency (who represents a bunch of talent in Hollywood and such) so they can get an idea of whats coming out movie wise and whats gonna be big.
Activision then fired them and told them that they had found proof that they where sabotaging MW2 to help EA and the lawyer was proof. They ripped up the contract on the spot and told them to get out.
The lawsuit comes from a number of things. Acitivison never paid out, they have no proof that anything was “sabotaged” and they where not given the promised bonus’s. They say that even if (which they say is all false and they have proof) they where in talks with EA, MW2 was a super hit, delivered before the promised time to the biggest sales of all time. The contract was fulfilled.
What a strange agreement.
I’m sure there’s some way they’ll be able to twist it to get out of trouble though.
i want one that takes place inside the human body
Genius, pure genius.
Wow. I knew non IF devs couldn’t make a modern day setting CoD, but I didn’t know that included the future as well. This may actually be kindof serious for Activision for allowing BO2. I mean, not to sound melodramatic, but this could very well be the end of CoD as a whole, seeing the position that IF is in.
wow, if this contract is true (and from the looks of it is) this could be a huge blow to activision. if the case can be made IW can demand an injunction placed on the development of black ops 2. it would mean a definite delay (most likely into 2013) or a rushed, unpolished product which activision knows it can’t have if it’s going to continue fighting off battlefield. it might just force activision into striking a deal with west and zampella to allow the game (something allong the lines of activision relinquishing it’s ownership of IW to west and zampella and IW dropping the restriction on futuristic COD games) cause COD is activision’s bread and butter. if it doesn’t come out in november activision stocks will drop like a stone.
Wont it be funny if they say no and CoD dies forever
So sad..
:p
I’m sure Activision will find a way to screw someone over, or fire someone.
Anyway, there are enough dumb kids buying this game so the lawsuit will be paid for and it won’t matter to them.