Modern Warfare 3 Held Up By Lawsuits

[Shawn Zipay]

It has now become clear what was meant by Activision when they claimed that Jason West's and Vince Zampella's actions have halted production on other Call of Duty titles. It now appears as though pre-production of Modern Warfare 3 has been halted because of the lawsuits between West and Zampella against Activision, and vice-versa.

According to the legal documents obtained by Kotaku, West and Zampella's attempts to form a spin-off studio have "delay(ed) pre-production of Modern Warfare 3." The apparently delay is also being used as "leverage in their negotiations with Activision".

As a result, it continues on to say that Activision has to allocate more of their resources towards the development of Modern Warfare 3 now.

"As a direct and proximate result of this breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, Activision has been forced to commit additional resources to Modern Warfare 3".

What does this all mean? Well, it means that Activision has just apparently announced Modern Warfare 3 by way of their court documents. Other than that, it's time to just take a "wait and see" attitude to see what comes of these lawsuits.

[SvenskaGeoff]

Re: Modern Warfare 3 Held Up By Lawsuits

GOOD MW3 shouldn't be for another decade, developers these days are releasing games at too quick of a pace its taking out the enjoyment of technology increases in our gaming software. Follow the Crysis 2 example and wait a few years. I feel as if thats why the Halo series was initially so successful as well as the Half-Life series. If valve really takes that long to release each episode, although we joke about it and people complain truth of the matter is they will still buy Half-Life 3 when it comes out, and when it does... OHHHH is it going to be good ;-)

[K-16]

Re: Modern Warfare 3 Held Up By Lawsuits

While I prefer your way of thinking by all means (oversaturation of any product line makes me sick regardless of what industry it is from, including interactive entertainment), your logic is a bit flawed in the sense that you have implied that the Call of Duty series is not as successful as the Halo and Half-Life series. My opinion would be that sales of CoD4: MW, CoD: WaW, and CoD: MW2 are ridiculously high for Activision to even think about slowing down. In a ruined economy such as this, Activision is surviving better than other industries choosing quality over quantity; the numbers support their strategy I'm afraid. And before anyone complains that I implied CoD lacks quality, I meant in comparison to games with a longer support system which includes free updates of both content and features (many games now require payment of content alone, when third-parties such as mod makers can do a similar job for free). Ironically (and to contradict myself), a lot of people seemed pleased about the Battlefield series, even though I have already vomited from seeing an oversaturation of this product line (the announcements made sounded ludicrous to me when they explained how many releases they were going to make in just a few years time); I do appreciate the loving support they're giving for Battlefield: BC2 though, as well as how specific the support is to each platform.

[SvenskaGeoff]

Re: Modern Warfare 3 Held Up By Lawsuits

Yeah, valid point that Activision should keep rolling on the success they have, and I'm going to be honest out of the whole series I have yet to play CoD: MW2, I think what I am referencing to is the simple awe and reaction to the first Call of Duty and the continuation of this amazement to the second Call of Duty. In my opinion and the opinion of many other game review sites CoD3 was sub par. Now this was switched around with Modern Warfare, however simply in my opinion Modern Warfare 2 is lacking this transition in titles. When Call of Duty 2 was released I had a number of friends urging others to play the game because it was just that cool, but this is not the case with MW2 (hence the fact I have not allowed for the funds to try this title). Yes it is a fact the Call of Duty train should keep rolling while the rolling is good, however I feel there were many issues with the release based on the news I pick up here at CSNation. One being the lack of PC dedicated servers (correct me if I'm wrong). To do my statement some justice and to show I'm not just out to pick on Call of Duty LEFT 4 DEAD 2... Ridiculous! This I've actually played and should have never existed outside of an expansion. It does not live up to the enjoyment from the first, the melee, maps, and characters could have been added as an expansion.

[K-16]

Re: Modern Warfare 3 Held Up By Lawsuits

Although I imagine you already know this, Treyarch developed Call of Duty 3, which lacked some of the foundations Infinity Ward established (including character relations such as John Price), which explains the decrease in popularity. They just weren't familiar with what worked from Infinity Ward's work. Modern Warfare was significantly more successful in the sense that people were sick of the World War II genre (why there hasn't been a product line of WWI games is beyond me; WWI wasn't THAT boring was it? I mean it involved... The world...), and that they were excited to hear about Infinity Ward's return. As for Modern Warfare 2, people were thrilled that development on it was confirmed (especially with Infinity Ward back at the helm), but uh... The last-minute announcements starting with the podcast outright slapped PC gamers' faces and even some console gamers' faces. For the console gamers, they lacked player counts, co-op campaigns (I said campaigns!), and original features (since many were "inspired" by PC mods), making Treyarch's WaW seem more favourable with their multiplayer options. For the PC gamers... They were stuck with a ****ing port! So PCs had no benefits whatsoever (no I don't count Steamworks as a benefit!), and even lost the ability to develop mods. Oh right, and the increased price since they had to profit somehow from such a diminishing community. And yes, you are right about the lack of THIRD-PARTY dedicated servers. Since it's a port, PC Gamers are stuck with the same drawbacks as console gamers. The overall suggestion from you seems to be about having Treyarch leave the Call of Duty franchise, while Infinity Ward needs to leave the PC development (since they already confirmed they disliked developing for PCs since... Call of Duty 2?). Again, this is just my interpretation, and no way am I going state this as fact, as I can not put words into your mouth without sounding retarded.

(Ok two more posts and I am removing this signature.)

[SvenskaGeoff]

Re: Modern Warfare 3 Held Up By Lawsuits

Well, good points on Call of Duty, I didn't know a lot of that stuff. CoD 1 was the best :-)

[K-16]

Re: Modern Warfare 3 Held Up By Lawsuits

Personally, I liked Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (especially their version of the battle on Omaha Beach). Now this is where things get interesting, and in two ironic ways thanks to the news as of recent (though I must insist out of personal opinion, that this is out of coincidence); MoH:AA was developed by 2015, Inc. where a huge handful of staff left to form... Infinity Ward with Call of Duty 1 as their first title. Where's the second irony? Well as everyone knows, EA published MoH:AA; now who is the publisher for Respawn Entertainment?... They're back home much to my surprise... From EA to Activision to EA again. Anyways, thanks for reading.