Rumor – Activision Delaying Payments Of Royalties

If rumors are to be taken with more than a grain of salt, then the latest news in the on-going made for cyber space drama between Activision and Infinity Ward, just got a whole lot deeper. You may recall that last week Activision decided to fire the two top executives of Infinity Ward for for “insubordination”. Those two execs then counter acted with a law suit, that alleged that they were fired in effort by Activision to not pay them royalties that were owed by the publishing giant. And now there’s more.

If a fraction of the rumors are true, it seems that there may be some weight to the claims that Activision is not trying to share the wealth made from Modern Warfare 2 with the very people who developed the game. Usually when the heads of studios quit or are fired, they end up taking all, or key members of their development team with them and form a new studio. That’s how Infinity Ward was formed from the ashes of studio 2015 – who developed Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. But no members of the Infinity Ward development team has left in the wake of their former bosses firing. Reports are saying this is all due to the fact that Activision is withholding royalties in an effort to keep the current developers in place.

Yes, I scratched my head after I first learned that news as well. There had been rumors that former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella, were possibly trying to strike a deal with EA for their services. So there could be some truth in that little parcel of information as well. No matter what, this all just keeps getting uglier with every unconfirmed piece of information. And something tells me that it is not going to end well for any of the parties involved.