EA announces new development studio headed by Zampella, West.
- Thread starter nintenho
- Start date
The best thing Activision could have done was giving the bonuses right away to the staff of IW with the departure of the heads with the promise of prompt delivery of all future bonuses. I mean how mad can you get or stay with a fresh new million dollar bill in your pocket.
Its sound like to me that Activision thinks that the brand "COD Modern Warfare" equals moneyhats and that the actual talent behind the brand isn't that important now that COD has reached blockbuster status. I think Activision will find itself in the future with a shell of a franchise of what it is today. Good luck attracting new talent.
IW interviewer: "We give really good bonuses!!!"
Prospective employee: "Will I have to sue Activision to get it?"
This makes me really appreciate how Bungie and MS were able to smoothly transition to a new relationship when Bungie became weary of continued development of Halo and the lack of independence.
IT all depends. 2 years would be perfect for a launch of a new franchise which really helped cod become what it was. COD2 on the 360 was the best launch title and most likely the best title for the first 8 or so months.
Also with EA they could just use the bf bad company 2 engine and get a game up much faster
Dan Amich, former OXM editor and Activision's Major Nelson blog/PR guy at OneOfSwords.com...
Dan Amrich on Facebook said:Yep, and that's not over yet. More people will probably go too, looking for new situations. Maybe they will join Respawn, maybe not. I'm confused, because by leaving, they are giving up their bonus -- and the more people that leave, the bigger the bonus gets for the people who stay. I'd think if you are young and hungry and have a vision for a new game, IW would be a really good place to be right now. There are so many young and hungry designers, programmers, and developers out there, and I suspect some of them are already employed at IW, just waiting for their shot. When the dust settles, I expect to see some talented people step up and redefine the studio.
<snip>
Vince and Jason had very large bonuses; those bonuses are being redistributed to everybody else, to the people who did not allegedly attempt to steal company secrets. (Please see Activision's countersuit for details about Vince and Jason's surreptitious attempts to photocopy and scan sensitive documents.) Activision is not pocketing that bonus money; it's still going to the people who work at IW. But you have to work at IW to get it, see?I don't want to see talented people screwed out of a paycheck any more than you do.
It's a great "thread" and it's about 5 pages long. Read it here...
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=174058223611&topic=14085
He later posted in that same topic and on his blog how he regretted how he said things...
http://oneofswords.com/2010/04/i-read-the-news-today-oh-boy/
Tommy McClain
That stuff is just insane. "I can't figure out why all these people are leaving, I mean, don't they realize we are totally holding their bonus money hostage? How can you walk away when we keep delaying payment in an effort to keep you here?"
If he joins Respawn it will officially be the funniest thing ever.
Eght more leave Infinity Ward. The total count is now 26 departures, and growing.
[ http://kotaku.com/5525152/eight-more-leave-modern-warfare-developers-bringing-total-to-26 ]
[ http://kotaku.com/5525152/eight-more-leave-modern-warfare-developers-bringing-total-to-26 ]
If a quality MW3 makes it by holiday 11, I will be amazed. Its no way you can lose that many leads and still hit a 2 year development cycle without any compromises. The most effective way to get back on track for IW is to pull staff over from Treyarch, but they are on the last leg of getting COD out for this holiday.
They're announcing the next Call of Duty on G4TV this Friday @ 12:40am...
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/episode-310-gametrailers-tv/65044
BTW, Griffith is staying on the board as vice-chairman. He's only resigning 2 months ahead of the end of his employment contract.
Better article at Gamasutra. I would post links to that site instead of GI.biz now that they require registration.
Tommy McClain
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/episode-310-gametrailers-tv/65044
BTW, Griffith is staying on the board as vice-chairman. He's only resigning 2 months ahead of the end of his employment contract.
Better article at Gamasutra. I would post links to that site instead of GI.biz now that they require registration.
Tommy McClain
Silent_Buddha
Legend
That's interesting. I wonder if they really DO have a clause in the contract that the employees signed that says they do not get the bonus if they leave the company prior to the bonuses being awarded.
If there is, then the employees are SoL for not reading and understanding their contracts before signing it.
If there isn't, then Activision is going to be in a lot of hot water once this hits the courts.
As someone noted above, it's amazing to contrast and compare this with the MS + Bungie situation and how those respective companies handled things. With MS basically contracting for a few more titles while they were in the process of forming a studio to take over developement of the franchise. Rather than drawing a line in the sand and daring the other to step over it.
Regards,
SB
Why would anyone accept a contract where payment due for work done is hinging upon wether you're still with the company?
And the only reason a company would want to put something like that in a contract is because they're greedy assholes; Bobby Kotick in a nutshell.
And the only reason a company would want to put something like that in a contract is because they're greedy assholes; Bobby Kotick in a nutshell.
I question if that'd even be legally binding in the UK. If it's a bonus for work done, it needs to be paid for work done. Otherwise if it's a 'bonus' for current employment, it'll be classed as something else like profit-sharing, surely? Furthermore, how long does one have to remain with the company to get the bonus for previous work? From the sounds of it payment is overdue, and so they are leaving, rather than leaving before the contractual payment is due thereby forgoing it.
As far as I know that's a relatively standard practice in the USA (in games), don't know about elsewhere though.
I've never worked at a place where they were free to move the payment dates or make the payments contingent on still working at the company. Perhaps it's standard in the screwed-by-publisher realm, but not at any place which runs itself like a genuine business.
Yeah, the shady part is when Activision started changing dates from what was originally promised. I think that is some very shaky ground for them. You can't spend years promising bonus payouts on a certain schedule and then at the last minute decide, "you know what? I'm going to hang on to this for another few years..."
Payment no. But bonuses or profit sharing schemes are quite typically discretionary and contracts which stipulate the possibility of delayed payout for all sorts of reasons, including that of a retention mechanism, are hardly unheard of though.
