According to the Hollywood Reporter, a Los Angeles Superior Court Judge has ruled that the lawsuit filed by former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella against Activision can be taken to court.

The lawsuit, infamously filed after the two developers, most famous for their work on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 (among other titles) were fired from Acitivison alleges that the move cut them off from over $125 million in royalties.

Activision has fired back, stating that the pair were fired due to shady behind the scenes practices that painted the company in a bad light.

Stick with Blast for more as it develops.

In an industry seemingly in love with zombies, it’s not hard to believe a game could rise from the dead. Hell, just look at Duke Nukem Forever. But could we be seeing a Guitar Hero resurrection down the road?

Maybe.

Speaking with CNBC about the decision to discontinue the Guitar Hero franchise, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick left the door open to the series returning in some way. “”We can never say never, but over the past two years we have seen rapid declines in the music genre, and unfortunately, based on current demand, we simply cannot continue to profitably make these games given the considerable licensing and manufacturing costs.”

Kotick also talked about the company’s decision to scrap a long running, but albeit thinning fan favorite. “We had three fantastic products in the marketplace in the [music] genre this year, our two games, DJ Hero 2 and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, and then Rock Band did a terrific game, but it’s just not a category that’s getting consumers enthusiastic right now, and so I think you need to focus your resources on the things that really gets consumers excited.”

“”If something’s not working, we’ll take it off the table, maybe reinvent it in the future, but our focus is really on figuring out what are the things that are going to excite audiences the most.”

Arguably the biggest story of the summer was the bitter departure of Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella from Activision and the studio they helped create. Filled with enough gossip and and here-say to make a TV movie, the creative minds behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and its sequel were part of the messiest break-up in videogame history.

In th  latest issue of Edge Magazine, Bobby Kotick, the head of Activision opens up about the pair’s exit, and the much hated boss is surprisingly candid.

“It shook my belief in two specific people, who were my friends,” he said. “The frustrating thing about that is, the stuff that these guys did, I never would have expected them to do. We’re a public company, we’ve got ethics obligations, and the things they did were… I would go to jail if I did them.”

Kotick and Activision’s lawyers claim that the pair was let go for misusing the company’s assets, and in return West and Zampella fired back, omparing the working conditions at Activision to that of a military state.

“You can’t use the company and the company’s assets for your own personal benefit, and you can’t use the leverage that you might have for personal benefit – you’re not allowed to do that! And so we didn’t have any choice,” Kotick told the magazine.

Kotick isn’t merely talking about the pair’s past, he even took a shot at Respawn Entertainment, the duos new studio with EA, saying that they’ll ” have a really hard time ever being productive or successful ever again.”

So what do you think? Who do you side with? Let us know!

Activision announced today that “new service offerings” which will “enhance online revenues” for the Call of Duty brand are on their way. What exactly does that mean? prepare to shell out some extra cash if you want the whole experience.

Now, now calm down — Activison was quick to announce that they won’t be implementing a subscription fee system, just add to what you already get, you know — for a price.

“Every year we have a great game, so every year we have recurring revenues that has a lot of zeros attached to it. We are expanding revenue during the in-between periods with additional content we’ve sold very successfully with map packs,” Activision’s COO Thomas Tippl said at a recent conference.  ”As we look into the future, there are new and innovative service offerings that could give players more choice. What we’re n”They’re willing to pay us for it and I think giving multiple entry points to consumers to figure out how to exactly play the game is something that’s really important to building our audiences.”ot going to do is take anything away from players that they used to get today for the price they get it for today. I don’t think that would be a good and smart business decision.

Tippl was quick to point out the benefits of a premium system being added to the blockbuster shooter franchise. “”But I think we have a lot in our pipeline that we believe will provide great value for our players. “I think there’s continued opportunity to expand the player base and to provide them with service offerings and products that can also enhance revenue growth.”

Activision’s CEO, and everyone’s favorite game industry wipping boy was quick to confirm that yes, his company is looking at a number of different options for a premium Call of Duty service.

In the past, Kotick has expressed his interest in instituting a subscription fee for Call of Duty gameplay, much like that of World of Warcraft. Stick with Blast for more on this as we get closer to Call of Duty: Black Ops November 9 release date.

Mega publisher Activision is seriously considering bringing about a subscription-based Call of Duty to the masses.

During a financial call this afternoon, Acitivision President and CEO of Publishing, Mike Griffith said the company intends to continue to annualize the Call of Duty franchise, but is also considering different business models to monetize the series.

“Our strategy continues to be to annualize our key franchises. We’ve indicated before that Call of Duty is on a two year development cycle given the content and work that needs to go into a high-quality game experience,” said Griffith.

“We also have new business models potentially for the franchise in the future and we’ve been building capabilities on both the business development side as well as the studio side of it. We remain committed to annualize the Call of Duty franchise.”

Activision Blizzard head-honcho Bobby Kotick weighed in and teased about the future of the franchise.

“If you think about the success that we’ve had in other product categories on subscription, you can get a sense of the direction that we want to take that franchise,” he said.

However this pans out specifically remains to be seen, but rest assured, the face of Call of Duty is changing.

Source: IGN

Big boss man Bobby Kotick of mega-publisher Activison, speaking to The Times of London today, indicated that the world’s largest third party publisher is “concerned” with Sony and the PlayStation 3.

“I’m getting concerned about Sony; the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don’t make it easy for me to support the platform. It’s expensive to develop for the console, and the Wii and the Xbox are just selling better. Games generate a better return on invested capital on the Xbox than on the PlayStation” he says.

However, Kotick does forsee one possible move that he is urging Sony to make if they don’t want their ties cut with Activision, and yes, you probably already know what it is.

“They have to cut the price, because if they don’t, the attach rates (the number of games each console owner buys) are likely to slow. If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony.”

If Activison does indeed sever their ties with Sony that would mean crazy-popular franchises including Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and Tony Hawk, among others would become exclusive to Nintendo and Microsoft.

Maybe Kotick hasn’t heard of Sony’s 10 year plan (it CLEARLY worked for the PS2) or maybe he hates living in a $10 million dollar mansion instead of a $50 million home, but one thing’s for sure; it will be interesting to see how Sony reacts to this bold statement by the Activision boss.

Sony should beware–Activision Chief is not simply playing games.

Activision is currently swimming in oodles of cash over at their Santa Monica headquarters, but if some is good, more is absolutely better.‚  The publisher of such hit franchises as Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and a little MMO called World of Warcraft announced today that due to “better than expected” returns on said franchises, the current financial outlook is sunny with a high of green moolah.

Earlier reports stated a March quarter take pegged at $860 million, and while it is unclear how high the new figure is, Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision envisions a figure tearing a hole in the atmosphere.

“Global consumer response to the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero franchises and Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft remains strong despite the challenging economic environment, we exceeded our quarterly financial goals as the video game market continues to grow and our franchises continue to perform.”