West and Zampella clarify rights

In a further layer to the already astonishing events of the Activision-Infinity Ward saga, defendants Jason West and Vince Zampella have outlined what they say are the rights afforded to them according to their deal with former bosses Activision.

The Memorandum of Understanding gives West and Zampella creative authority over the development of any games under the Modern Warfare brand (or any other Call of Duty game set in the post-Vietnam era, the near future or the distant future) including complete control over the Infinity Ward studio,” court documents obtained by IGN explains.

The MOU explicitly provides that no such game can be commercially released without the written consent of West and Zampella.”

But just weeks before West and Zampella were to receive the royalties for their hard work on MW2, Activision fired them in the hope that by doing so, it could avoid paying them what they had rightfully earned, and to seize control of the Infinity Ward studio, to which Activision had previously granted creative control over all Modern Warfare branded games.”

A diary of events detailed in the court documents have been compiled over at Develop.