Rumor: All that’s keeping Infinity Ward employees from jumping ship are unpaid royalties

Even with the departure of bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella, it seems a lot of Infinity Ward’s staff are still sticking around at Activision. It’s not out of loyalty, though. According to a Kotaku report it’s mostly because Activision still hasn’t paid them their royalties.

Even with the departure of bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella, it seems a lot of Infinity Ward’s staff are still sticking around at Activision. It’s not out of loyalty, though. According to a Kotaku report it’s mostly because Activision still hasn’t paid them their royalties.

Apparently, every Infinity Ward employee who worked on Modern Warfare 2 is supposed to receive some royalties. Kotaku’s sources say that Activision is reportedly withholding the money in order to keep them from leaving. All this has caused morale at the studio to plummet.

Royalties also figured in West and Zampella’s suit against Activision. Infinity Ward employees are reportedly paid regular or even “low” salaries but are offered ridiculously high royalties to make up for it. Modern Warfare 2 sold a hell of a lot of copies, so you can probably guess that the royalties on this one are pretty high as well.

Via [Kotaku]