With the Activision vs. Zampella/West (founders of Infinity Ward, you know, the guys that made the Modern Warfare series) court battle is still raging on, Activision might get into more legal trouble with their upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 release. According to Game Informer, Activision continues to hold the rights to the Call of Duty franchise, but Call of Duty games set in “modern day (post Vietnam), the near future or distant future” would be retained by Infinity Ward. With Black Ops 2 set in 2025, developer Treyarch put a lot of thought in the futuristic setting. An intellectual property attorney said that, if West and Zampella win their suit, Activision could be forced to pull the game, but a more likely scenario is money damages awarded by the court.
However, clause 4(d) at the end of the memorandum specifically states that if IW management (West and Zampella) are no longer employed by Activision, then the terms of the memorandum are no longer in effect. This seems to override any potential problem, but it is yet another issue that the court must rule on. With Black Ops 2 setting pre-order records, West and Zampella might just get prime cuts of that cow if the employment clause is not enforced.
[youtube id=”x3tedlWs1XY” width=”600″ height=”350″]Source: ShackNews
