Actvision vs Blizzard case additional info - Nerd Age

Quite a few of you might have heard about Activision’s suit against Electronic Arts. Electronic Arts filed for a summary judgement but it was denied.

The lawsuit itself stems from some Blizzard employees who Activision has reason to believe EA interfered with. They asserted that Electronic Arts had influenced Call of Duty game developers, Jason West and Vince Zampella to unprofessional conduct.

Activision asserts that EA influenced these men to cause harm to their company. Activision also claimed in a legal brief that “West and Zampella’s misdeeds formed an unlawful pattern and practice of conduct that was designed to steal the [Infinity Ward] studio.”

West and Zampella had previously claimed that Activision had treated them unfairly. Whatever the case, a disagreement between some small developers and a big company has ballooned into this. We now see two major companies poised to cause serious damage to each other.

This case isn’t where the anger between the companies ends either. EA’s Jeff Brown, an EA Corporate Communications Representative, asserted that Call of Duty would be dead in 3 years.

The two companies have had quite a few angry barbs for each other. This is only natural when they are direct competitors with very similar games. Call of Duty by Activision and Battlefield 3 by EA even fall within the same target audience as each other.

This case is a real lesson to upcoming developers. In every aspect of gaming people try to remain civil, but there is always a hotbed of problems that isn’t often talked about. No matter what size of developer you are, you have to be aware of the back stage politics.

At any rate, the case will most likely just get bigger as it goes on. Neither company has any reason to give ground to a major competitor they have bad blood with.