EA pays Activision to settle $400 million court battle

Why can’t we all just get along?

Jeremy ProomeMay 17, 2012

EA and Activision’s on-going catfight has finally reached an out-of-court settlement.

“Activision and EA have agreed to put this matter behind them”, said a statement issued from Activision’s lawyer, Beth Wilkinson.

The issues began when West and Zampella were rumoured to be head-hunted by EA, while still under contract from Activision and Infinity Ward.

West and Zampella were fired from Infinity Ward in March 2010, after Activision said that EA has “intentionally interfered” with the two developers and “engaged in unfair competition and aided and abetted breaches of fiduciary duty by the executives.” West and Zampella then went on to form their new studio, Respawn, under the EA umbrella.

The settlement comes after Activision hired a new lawyer, Beth Wilkinson, to represent them in the EA-Acti trial. Wilkinson had asked for a 30 day delay of the trial, which was due to begin on May 29, to catch up with events surrounding it.

This settlement is a different entity to that of the Activision/Infinity Ward saga which saw the publisher pay out $42 million to ex-Infinity Ward staff for unpaid royalties.