Unsealed testimony alleges Activision tried to spy on ex-infinity Ward heads

A number of unsealed documents from the upcoming trial between Activision and a group of ex-Infinity Ward developers have revealed a testimony that alleges the publisher launched an internal investigation against lead plaintiffs Jason West and Vince Zampella.

 The documents--made public this week by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle--contain the testimony of Activision's former senior director of information technology, Thomas Fenady. As reported by Giant Bomb and The Los Angeles Times, Fenady's testimony alleges that Activision's in-house lawyer, George Rose, asked him to spy on West and Zampella by accessing their work emails, voice mails, and computer files.


According to Fenady, who left Activision in 2009, Rose told him the decision to investigate West and Zampella came from Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. The testimony also alleges the objective--known as "Project Icebreaker"--was begun with the aim of building evidence against West and Zampella, but that efforts to monitor the personal correspondence of the developers, which included using outside parties, were unsuccessful.

Other documents unsealed by Judge Elihu Berle in the case include a plan documenting bonuses from West and Zampella's initial agreement in 2003, as well as a memorandum of understanding from 2008, explaining the extension of the developers' initial contract.

According to the LA Times report, the documents form part of the contract that Activision had with West and Zampella and the 40 other game developers involved in the lawsuit, laying out the money that Activision owes the developers in royalties and bonuses.

Activision claims that it fired West and Zampella because they were secretly planning to start their new studio with the help of Electronic Arts, while still employed by the Call of Duty publisher. West and Zampella claim that the real reason they were fired was so Activision wouldn't have to pay them millions of dollars in royalties associated with Modern Warfare 2. Beyond the performance-based payout and any other court-awarded monetary damages, West and Zampella are seeking to gain co-ownership of the Modern Warfare brand. If successful in court, West and Zampella would have the right to create and release both old and new instalments in the Modern Warfare franchise.

According to a recent report from Bloomberg, Activision has dropped the $400 million claim against EA, which originally made up part of its lawsuit against West and Zampella.

Although the terms of the settlement were not disclosed, Bloomberg reported that EA will now be removed from the upcoming trial, set to take place on May 29.

Capcom Revising on - disc DLC stance

Capcom has heard the customer complaints over the "downloadable" content for Street Fighter X Tekken being locked away on the retail disc, and the publisher is changing in response. Senior VP Christian Svensson posted a statement about the change in direction on Capcom's official forums yesterday.

"We would like to assure you that we have been listening to your comments and as such have begun the process of re-evaluating how such additional game content is delivered in the future," Svensson said. "As this process has only just commenced in the past month or so, there will be some titles, where development began some time ago and that are scheduled for release in the coming months, for which we are unable to make changes to the way some of their post-release content is delivered."

For example, Svensson said next week's release of Dragon's Dogma will arrive with some DLC already on the disc. While he didn't specify which content was on-disc, Svensson said the game would receive an array of new weapons, quests, and customization options after launch.

On the eve of Street Fighter X Tekken's March debut, Capcom admitted that the 12 "downloadable" characters announced as PlayStation Vita exclusives were actually on the discs of the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game. These fighters will be sold for $20 (1,600 MS points) sometime after the PS Vita version launches this fall.

Modern Warfare 3 getting Face Off mode

Latest Call of Duty title adding one vs. one and two vs. two mode for Xbox Live on May 16; first two maps to be free.

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Call of Duty fans yearning to put their skills to the test in close-quarters maps are in luck. Developers Infinity Ward, Raven Software, and Sledgehammer Games today announced a new Face Off game mode for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

he new Face Off mode will be played on specially designed maps with matches consisting of either one vs. one or two vs. two. Two free Face Off maps--Erosion and Aground--will be made available to all Xbox Live users on May 16.

An additional two maps--Lookout and Getaway--will be available to purchase inside the Content Collection 2 downloadable content pack, which arrives on Xbox Live on May 22. This add-on also contains the multiplayer map Oasis and two new Special Ops missions. Future releases for additional platforms were not mentioned.

For more on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, check out GameSpot's review.

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Released a new trailer for Hitman: Absolution

Recently, when Square Enix released a new trailer for the fifth part of the Hitman franchise, which consists only of excerpts from the game.

The publisher says that the purpose of this trailer show, especially "richness, depth, diversity and potential of the world" in which parents Agent terrible 47 As already seen from the trailer, the game had a very nice graphics, but also the game drew driver Glacier 2, said the creator IO Interactive.

In the video you can see a lot of different ways that you can target your tired, as in previous works but you will be more mysterious or more aggressive approach to the performance of their duties.