38 employees of Infinity Ward, have sued Activision Blizzard Inc., claiming that they are owed between $75 million and $125 million in unpaid royalties and potentially more in compensatory damages. Of the 38 employees involved in the lawsuit, 21 are former employees of Infinity Ward; 17 still work there. Approximately 95 people worked at Infinity Ward on last November's Modern Warfare 2, meaning that about 40% of its employees at that time are now suing Activision.
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Amongst their several claims of relief against Activision, West and Zampella are claiming that: (1) they have creative control of all 'Modern Warfare' branded games, (2) Activision may not commercially release any MW game (or CoD game set post-Vietnam or in the near or distant future) and (3) they are owed all current and future royalties on MW2, including tech royalties (royalties arising from other Activision studios using tech developed by IW for MW2)
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At the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVII Conference Kotick let loose some big ones. "We're outselling [Rock Band] 6:1. When you think about the access we have to 30% of the world's music at Universal, we have a unique advantage there... when you look at resources, you know, our next-nearest competitor has a couple of hundred people working on these projects, we have close to 2000 people just dedicated to the Guitar Hero note tracking, introduction of new hardware, introduction of new software.
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When asked about the chances of a StarCraft MMO, Pearce replied: "It would be a lot of work...WoW has been in development since, in some shape or form, 1999. There's people on the WoW team that have been on that team for nine years. So there's nine years of technology and story and content that are created. The bar for entry into the MMO genre, whether it's Blizzard or someone else, is very high as a result. So you're dealing with a market where games have nine years invested in them.
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ActiBlizz CFO Thomas Tippl telling MCV "with every merger, there is overlap and redundancy, and so the same will be true here. Of course we're going to go to our customers with one face. We don't need two sales forces". Those facing the axe shouldn't get too down on themselves. Tippl promises they'll be treated "respectfully", then reminds them that at the rate this industry is growing, they may well find themselves needed, and back on the payroll, in no time.
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Activsion will develop games based on the Discovery Channel show Animal Planet.
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Officials from Activision have raised the company’s third quarter and fiscal 2008 earnings and revenue predictions thanks to strong sales of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The publisher is now expecting third quarter profits of $0.66 per share on revenue of $1.225 billion, up from previous forecasts of $0.51 per share and revenues of $1.050 billion. Full year forecasts have been raised from $2.07 billion to $2.30 billion.
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Activision sales up, Credit Suisse raises price target to $25
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AG Edwards reiterates "Buy" on Activision, price target $24
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Publisher Activision announced today new "strategic plans" for the Call of Duty franchise, announcing a new developer for the shooter franchise and confirming the departure of key Infinity Ward staffers.
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