Activision is a police state

Jul 15, 10 Activision is a police state

It’s hard to believe the darling child of Activision’s game development roster has come down to a series of lawsuits, which claim that working for Activision was like working under a police state. The suit claims that Activision subjected Infinity Ward employees to secret “interrogations” and placed security guards at the office exits ahead of the termination of studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella in March. It also claims that Activision paid out 40% of the bonus money owed to Infinity Ward employees for Modern Warfare 2, but withheld an additional $54 million as “ransom” to coax the remaining Infinity Ward employees into making Modern Warfare 3 — the money was to only be paid to them once Modern Warfare 3 was completed and shipped by November 2011, the lawsuit claims.

Employees allegedly met with CEO Bobby Kotick who promised them their money on exiting the company – a promise which has not been met. Not only that, the suit also claims that if West and Zampella were never fired, if the bonus money had been paid out in full and if Activision had not created a “police state-like atmosphere,” the group of employees would have never resigned from Infinity Ward. Ouch.

Activision have yet to make a comment about this, but if they do we’ll be sure to post it here.

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