Ben-DutkaThe Activision/Infinity Ward war is now in full swing, so it's time to see what the experts think.
Well, Wedbush Morgan industry analyst Michael Pachter thinks it would be "terrible" for Activision if Zampella and West won the rights to the franchise, but at the same time, he believes the two plaintiffs will indeed get some cash. In speaking to Critical Gamer , Pachter had this to say about the pending lawsuits:
…I think it is highly unlikely that Zampella/West will win the rights to the brand. I have not seen their contracts (I am a lawyer), but my understanding from the news commentary about the suit is that they had the rights to supervise and control modern warfare versions of the game under their old contract. What was not reported is whether these rights were granted to them as employees (likely). If so, when they are no longer employees, they presumably lose those rights.
The situation is analogous to firing the coach of a sports team, who continues to claim the right to set the the team’s line up. I don’t think that they will win any rights over the brand, but they may win some money. With 1.3 billion shares, the amount sought is only around $0.02/share, so it won’t cripple Activision."
We'll go with that, but what if it's true that Zampella and West were wrongfully terminated, as they are alleging? I think it's clear Activision fired those guys so they couldn't retain the rights to the franchise, because the publisher wants those rights back. But I'm no lawyer and I certainly don't have all the facts, so take what I say with a grain of salt. The bottom line is that we could be hearing about these lawsuits for quite some time, which will do little to help Activision's ailing public image.
those guys should start a sony studio and develop an exclusive for the ps3
I have no doubt these guys will rise and deliver another outstanding game…be it under the MW name or not, it will be good and Activision will kick themselves all the way for doing an incredibly STUPID business move based not on anything credible, but solely based on greed.
I don't know what's funnier. Pachter playing his lawyer card for credentials, or LV being sore about the Kotick comments.
Evidently you're in favor of posters that are the equivalent of a spam bot?
It's bad enough this crap floods Joystiq, I see no reason it has to start up here.
I predict that they will get the rights, but no money. When in doubt, say the opposite of Pachter.
IW's owed their royalty money so they'll definitely wind up getting that money that.
As for either being able to keep the MW name or selling it for money, or losing the name rights because of the contract's wording, we'll all just have to do a wait-&-see until the the court exposes the full content in that contract, and who's wording has actually 1-upped the other company.
I hate to say it, but I have to think that the puppetmaster had his lawyer's word the contract in such a way, that kotex has already got much of it all finagled out to his advantage.
I can only hope that IW & their lawyers can prove some serious "wrongdoing" on the part of kotex & Anti-vision.
kotex needs to corralled & saddled, have his A$$ branded, have his testicles surgically removed by a vet, and then put out to pasture, as a harmless gelding.
Last edited by BikerSaint on 3/5/2010 9:51:50 PM
Gotta hate Darth Kotex.
from what ive read IW signed a contract in 2008 for the rights to the MW brand name, so if they wanted to they could go off and use a different publisher for the series.
i can not understand how activision has kept out of jail yet though i mean seriously how many law suits have been filled against them?
obviously there doing something wrong, you dont get a law suit filled against you for no reason.
not even in america, well ok maybe you can.
but still.