Kotick: Easy decision to fire Infinity Ward devs
Activision CEO Robert Kotick says taking action against Vince Zampella and Jason West was easy decision to make; no plans for Call of Duty movie.
Firing Infinity Ward top talent Jason West and Vince Zampella in 2010 was not a difficult decision for Activision CEO Robert Kotick to make. In a New York Times profile published this week, Kotick addressed the swift and severe action taken against the high-profile developers.
“You find out two executives are planning to break their contracts, keep the money you gave them, and steal 40 employees. What do you do? You fire them,” Kotick said.
Activision's high-profile court case against West and Zampella, along with 40 other former Infinity Ward developers, was settled in May this year before it could be heard by a trial. Terms of the deal were not disclosed at the time and have not been since, though one analyst previously projected this figure to be in the tens of millions.
Elsewhere in the profile, it was revealed why the massively popular Call of Duty brand has not spawned a Hollywood adaptation. Kotick said game-to-film adaptations rarely work out and could in fact blemish the franchise. Hollywood studios have reached out to Activision, he said, though all requests thus far have been denied.
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