EA's "crown" falls to Activision

Yep, I've been pretty constant in my disdain for Electronic Arts... in fact, I'm pretty certain that I've successfully avoided buying any product of theirs for years, with the one exception of Spore (which was as much a reward for trying something different and rewarding the efforts of the founder of Maxis as anything else). However, it looks like I have to take EA off the top of my "game companies to avoid" list, since Activision's management has taken things to a whole new level.

Here's a link to a better description of what's going on in Activison-land, but here's the basics... Activision bought a game developer some time back, and part of the contract for that promised royalties on that developer's products to their founders. As pay-up day approached, Activision let their investors know that they were going to fire those founders for "insubordination" (the nature of which hasn't come to light to date), which, I gather, would mean that they wouldn't have to pay out those royalties, and that they were likely to get sued in the process. Sure enough, those founders are suing, and the detailed descriptions in their legal filings of the thuggish behavior they endured on approach to firing speaks volumes, compared to the bland accusations of insubordination by Activision.

I suppose it could be argued that I should wait until all the facts of the case come to light, etc., but calling people in on a holiday weekend for a 6-hour interrogation session, and demanding they turn over their personal electronic equipment to company lawyers for review, never mind any of the other items alleged in that filing, crosses way over the line of appropriate corporate behavior for any company. As such, no more Activision games for me... luckily, I haven't played World of Warcraft for years, so I don't have a major addiction to give up to "do the right thing". I'll just have to check my collection of recent games when I get home, and see how guilty I should feel for helping Activision grow to the size it is today.