Activision Hit With $500m Suit From Modern Warfare 2 Devs 77
Dragoniz3r writes "Activision has been served a lawsuit from 38 plaintiffs, including present and former Infinity Ward employees, demanding up to half a billion dollars. The plaintiffs are seeking compensation for 'unpaid bonuses, royalties, profit-sharing, and future profits from games such as Modern Warfare 3, and punitive damages.'"
Re:MW3 money? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not to beat a dead horse, but... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:MW3 money? (Score:4, Informative)
The tricky part here, though, is "California". The laws there are such that you have to pay money owed under a legal contract, period. But you can only recover actual damages and interest. Nothing else. Their inclusion of "punitive damages" and the insane amount is just as likely to get the thing thrown out by a judge. Just watch most of those TV court shows - they tend to be filmed in California or New York, both of which almost every other episode have the judge explain to the plaintiff (for the thousandth time) that "pain and damages" and the like aren't recoverable there.
I put the real bill at closer to maybe 50 million, which is still a lot of cash. My guess is that they are hoping to settle out of court since Activision knows they are going to be found guilty of something the second the lawyers go through their emails and documents. Again, California's laws are a PITA to deal with and it has some of the nastiest chain-of-evidence and E-discovery laws. If you hide anything, you're meat. If you destroy anything, you're toast. If you "forgot" to keep the old emails, you essentially lose the case by default. And the guys really do show up with the police in tow if required and haul your entire backups off to get analyzed by firms that are so good at this stuff that nothing short of god-level encryption will save you.
Basic summary - don't do business in California if you plan to screw your partners or employees. You lose every single time. The only question is - how much will Activision have to settle for.
Re:Not to beat a dead horse, but... (Score:4, Informative)
LOSE! L-O-S-E! Dammit.
Re:employment contract (Score:4, Informative)
WHen IW was bought IW retained the rights to the CoD name and future titles.
Re:Brain Drain (Score:3, Informative)
That was before Bobby Kotick bought the company name and sacked everyone there from the original Activision.
Re:Not to beat a dead horse, but... (Score:2, Informative)