If you live under a rock, you may not have heard of the ridiculous studio takeover and firing of Infinity Ward’s top executives by Deathstar operator, Activision. If you haven’t heard about it, well, Infinity Ward has lost key contributors in the Modern Warfare franchise that include guys like Jason West and Vince Zampella.

Due to all of these petty moments, Activision has effectively created a delay in the development of Modern Warfare 3. While some may see this as a blessing considering the disaster that Modern Warfare 2 has been (despite sales), it goes to show that maybe sometimes publishers should just let the creative team behind a franchise take the reins to deliver excellence.

While we’d love to blame it all on Activision, Zampella and West have played a key role in causing a disturbance of their own. According to a countersuit filed by Activision they describe the two’s behavior as “an improper attempt to gain an advantage for themselves in connection with their plan to leave Activision and establish their own company”

“Among other things, they delayed pre-production of Modern Warfare 3.”

The filing continues: “As a direct and proximate result of this breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, Activision has been forced to commit additional resources to Modern Warfare 3, institute litigation to seek a declaration of rights, and incur costs and attorney’s fees, and will incur additional expenses”.

“Activision has been [financially] damaged as a result of West and Zampella’s actions.”

It’s hard to imagine which side is in the right or in the wrong because none of us really know what is going on, but if this isn’t sorted out soon, it’s going to be the gamers that suffer the most — not these billion dollar companies.

According to West and Zampella’s lawyer, Activision has “lost sight of reality.”

“Activision’s inaccurate and misguided allegations lose sight of the reality here: None of the false claims of insubordination or breach of duties had any negative affect on Activision — none.

“Modern Warfare 2 has been the world’s most successful video game. And none of this changes the fact that Jason and Vince would still be at Infinity Ward developing new games except that Activision kicked them out.

“This is just an Activision tactic to avoid paying Jason and Vince and everyone else at Infinity Ward the millions of dollars they all earned and that Activision owes them. Since being fired by Activision, Jason and Vince have taken steps to regain control over their creative future and plan to have an announcement very soon.”

Until there is a clear cut verdict on all of this, this is probably the last we’ll be posting about it. It’s all kind of spiraling out of control and to be honest, it’s getting a little dull for my tastes. However, I’d love to know if you guys think Activision is in the right or if West and Zampella will come out the clear cut winners.