No that messy Activision vs West/Zampella court case hasn’t had it’s real day in court yet and this payout is apparently not an admission of guilt or even related to the court case.
And yet it totally is. During the pre-trial phase of the afore mentioned court case the Activision lawyers have been going through the documents and preparing their case and have come to the realisation they were a little wrong.
So strong was the claim from the “Infinity Ward Employee Group” for this bonus money that the lawyers decided that it wasn’t even worth fighting it in a court of law and have convinced Activision to pay over the owed money plus interest and to strike this section from the case.
Unfortunately for them the lawyers for the other side have happily accepted the money but have decided to leave this claim on the books as they are claiming that Activision acted maliciously by withholding this money and therefore their clients are now also owed punitive damages plus bonuses on other titles.
According to the Infinity Ward lawyers this move was a
“cynical attempt to look good before the jury trial.”
and
I can also tell you that although it is a meaningful payment it is only a small portion of what we are seeking in litigation. It is outrageous that they made us wait, they obviously knew they owed the money and this just shows that they breached the contract.
If it was indeed an attempt by the Activision lawyers to paint themselves in a good light I feel it has failed and rather shows that Activision has acted maliciously by withholding valid payments which has now tainted them for the other claims being leveraged against them.
My guess right now is that Activision will end up forking over another $300 million before this court case is finally laid to rest.
Last Updated: May 15, 2012
