Activision Blizzard, developers of famous multiplayer games such as “Call of Duty” and “World of Warcraft”, has asked the courts for 400 million dollars in damages in a law suit related to the franchise “Call of Duty” against Electronic Arts.
The case opened by Activision Blizzard is against two former executives of the company, who participated in the development of “Call of Duty” and now the company is seeking to add Electronic Arts to the list of defendants.
The two executives in question are Vincent Zampella and Jason West, who were sued in April by Activision on charges of attempt to take control of company assets and threat to the outlook of “Call of Duty”. The lawsuit was a counterattack to their court proceeds against Activision Blizzard, through which the duo challenged their removal from office and demanded damages and royalties of 36 million dollars.
According to Activision Blizzard, the two executives had broken their long-term agreements on exclusive employ by establishing their own independent company that was to develop video games for competitor Electronic Arts, and not for Activision Blizzard, as per the exclusive employment clauses in their contracts.
After being fired by Activision, Zampella and West created Respawn Entertainment, which closed a distribution and publishing contract with Electronic Arts. The deal and its results, say Activision representatives, cost the company losses in the order of hundreds of millions.
Electronic Arts has not made any comments on the issue yet. The publisher became famous with sports video games, such as the “FIFA”, “NBA” and “Need for Speed” series, while Activision Blizzard has become the world’s most powerful video games producer and publisher with names such as “Call of Duty”, “World of Warcraft: Cataclysm” and “StarCraft”.
In other news, “Call of Duty: Black Ops”, launched on November 9, has already posted sales of roughly one billion dollars, according to company officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal.