The drama surrounding Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and Vince Zampella is far from over — it has just begun. The duo has responded to Activision’s knee-jerk charge of insubordination and breach of contract with a stiff lawsuit, asserting that the mega-corp never made good on its promise to deliver “substantial royalty payments” for their involvement in the creation of multi-million dollar blockbuster Modern Warfare 2.

“We were shocked by Activision’s decision to terminate our contract,” said West.  “We poured our heart and soul into that company, building not only a world class development studio, but assembling a team we’ve been proud to work with for nearly a decade.  We think the work we’ve done speaks for itself.”

Specifically, the suit calls out Activision for “breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, wrong termination in violation of public policy, and declaratory relief.” In addition, West and Zampella are after the “contractual rights” to the Modern Warfare brand, implying that they want the IP back in their hands. One has to wonder how Activision will respond. It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out. Battle of the titans.

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