Last month, Activision fired Jason West and Vince Zampella, the two most senior employees of Call of Duty-developer Infinity Ward, over allegations of insubordination. West and Zampella filed a claim for an amount in excess of $36 million dollars as well as the rights to all Call of Duty instalments set in the post-Vietnam era. Today, Activision confrimed to IGN that it has finally filed a counter claim against West and Zampella.
While the court documents themselves are not available at this time, Activision confirmed that “West and Zampella morphed from valued, responsible executives into insubordinate and self-serving schemers who attempted to hijack Activision’s assets for their own personal gain and whose actions threatened both the future of the [Call of Duty] franchise and the future of Activsion’s Infinity Ward studio.”
Specifically, Activision claims that West and Zampella had hired private attorneys and agents in order “to negotiate with third parties for future financial arrangements.” While not treading into detail, it was also stated that West and Zampella allegedly went on a secret trip by private jet to meet with the most senior management of Activision’s closest competitor.
Recently, a rumor surfaced that Electronic Arts, which is generally considered to be Activision’s closest competitor, has placed a ‘bounty’ on the former Infinity Ward studio heads, to be awarded to the recruiter that reels them in. Both West and Zampella are currently signed the Creative Artists Agency, a major Hollywood talent agency that provides creative artists for almost all branches of the entertainment industry.