Earlier this month we were given our first insight into the world of Black Ops 2 and that world included futuristic warfare and settings which was welcomed by the majority of Call of Duty fans.
However this futuristic setting could herald some massive legal problems for Activision as Infinity Ward actually have a contract granting them full exclusive rights to any post Vietnam settings for the Call of Duty brand.
This clause was out in before Jason West and Vince Zampella did a runner and therefore I’m guessing Activision have internally relaxed the contract and given Treyarch permission to go ahead with the futuristic setting.
But the impending court case between West/Zampella and Activision could throw a massive spanner in the works. It doesn’t take a legal genius to imply that Activision has given Treyarch free reign on the modern warfare angle to ensure lower royalties will need to be paid over to West and Zampella moving forward.
These sort of underhanded tactics are illegal and if a judge decides that the original contract between Infinity Ward and Activision still stands then the 3 options open to him would be to demand that the modern warfare sections be removed from the game or that royalties will need to be paid to West and Zampella or even that the game be removed from store shelves.
According to a report on GameInformer the outcome is not clear cut and Activision are taking quite the chance in tempting fate in the year of the trial itself.
In the end it wouldn’t be in anyone’s interest to remove the game from sale but you can bet that the royalty demands are going to be huge and painful if Activision lose their court case.
Last Updated: May 9, 2012
