Call of Duty Devs Nearly Made $27 Million

Documents made public as part of the upcoming Infinity Ward trial have revealed the massive bonuses owed to Infinity Ward founders Vince Zampella and Jason West.

West and Zampella were fired by Activision back in 2010. At the time, the pair alleged that Activision owed them “substantial royalty payments” but specific figures were never made public. Now, emails revealed by the LA Times show that the pair was owed nearly $27 million in compensation at the time of their termination.
While Zampella and West each earned a base salary of $436,800, they
were each entitled to bonuses of $13,084,123 that were never paid. In
addition, 21 Infinity Ward employees were set to earn bonuses ranging
from $1.1 million to $2.5 million that were also never paid. According to Gamasutra, 18 of the 21 employees listed have now departed Infinity Ward for West and Zampella’s new company, Respawn Entertainment.

To put those salaries in perspective, a report
earlier this year listed average game development salaries
significantly lower than those that Infinity Ward was offering. For
example, the report said that art positions in game development pay an
average of $75,780. By comparison, Infinity Ward lead artist Joel Emslie
was set to earn a salary of $112,335 in 2010 with a bonus of nearly
$1.2 million. “If you recently worked on a hit FPS, read this and see
how incredibly underpaid you are,” ngmoco general manager Ben Cousins
said in a tweet.

Previously, Electronic Arts was also pulled into the lawsuit, though the company reached a settlement
with Activision last week. The trial between Infinity Ward and
Activision is set to begin on May 29th, so keep checking back to IGN for
reports on the proceedings as they unfold.

Source: GamesIndustry.biz