Suiting Up

Big news in the whole Infinity Ward events of recent. Yesterday a group of 38 former and current employees of Infinity Ward (including virtually all of the people who have resigned in the past few weeks) have filed a lawsuit against Activision. The "IWEG" (Infinity Ward Employees Group) is seeking over $54 million in royalties owed plus $75-$500 million dollars in punitive damages (based on the net sales of MW2 and Activision's net worth). IWEG's claim here is that Activision intentionally withheld bonus's in an attempt to force IW employees to continue a job they didn't want so Activision could force them to complete and deliver Modern Warfare 3. Activisions defense is that the amount and schedule of bonus payments is at their discretion. All this is also separate to a lawsuit Activision is currently dealing with against former IW heads, who are suing for royalties they should have been paid weeks before being fired from the company on claims of insubordination. Regardless of who ends up being the winner here, This can't be good news for Activision with such bad publicity surely being taken into consideration by any potential new employees and the chance that the studio may have to be closed down while the mess gets sorted out.