Call of Duty: Legal Warfare

G4TV has been all over the beheadings at Infinity Ward, and it seems the entire gaming press has been glued to the site for days.

For starters, Jason West and Vince Zampella walked (or were escorted) out the door at IW, and went straight over to the legal offices of O'Melveny &; Myers.  They're suing Activision for the royalties they're owed, apparently, and for the IP rights to the Call of Duty Modern Warfare part of the franchise:

'Activision has refused to honor the terms of its agreements and is intentionally flouting the fundamental public policy of this State (California) that employers must pay their employees what they have rightfully earned,' said [attorney Robert] Schwartz in [a press] release. 'Instead of thanking, lauding, or just plain paying Jason and Vince for giving Activision the most successful entertainment product ever offered to the public, last month Activision hired lawyers to conduct a pretextual 'investigation' into unstated and unsubstantiated charges of 'insubordination' and 'breach of fiduciary duty,' which then became the grounds for their termination on Monday, March 1st.'

In response to the suit, Activision has released leaked some details on its investigation into West's and Zampella's alleged misconduct.  An internal legal memo says the company wants to get its hands on:

• Documents regarding past, current or future IW projects, including but not limited to any and all businesses analyses of future projects (e.g. Modern Warfare 3)
• Documents regarding any potential 'spin out' of IW, including but not limited to any communications with IW employees, West or Zampella regarding forming a new studio independent of Activision
• Documents regarding West and Zampella's communications with Activision's competitors, including but not limited to Electronic Arts

Although Activision says it's still "searching" for this information, they've already got it in one form or another.  This leak is just their way of presenting their argument to the public without actually discussing pending litigation. It also sort of looks like they're firing a warning shot over EA's bow, in case the latter has any notions of hiring someone to make a Modern Warfare game.

Don't expect this to be resolved in our lifetimes.  Activision has every incentive - and the financial resources - to make this litigation as slow and painful as possible.