Activision Digs For Dirt On West & Zampella

According to court filings, before the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (shown), Activision inaugurated Project Icebreaker to find dirt on Infinity Ward's Jason West and Vince Zampella.

Giant Bomb says it was given this filing for the upcoming trail by the PR firm for West and Zampella's attorneys. The information in the filing comes from the deposition of then Activision director of IT Thomas Fenady. He says he was instructed by George Rose, who at the time was the company's chief legal officer (and is now the company's chief policy officer), to dig up dirt on the pair at the behest of Activision CEO Bobby Kotick in order to find "excuses to dump them."

Although Rose himself denied that he ever told Fenady to "dig up dirt" on West and Zampella, he affirms the existence of Project Icebreaker and admits that it was unsuccessful in gaining access to the pair's emails (as well as those of other employees at developer Infinity Ward). Outside parties – including Microsoft – were contacted to help crack West and Zampella's passwords, but none of these companies complied.

Fenady also said that Activision discussed staging fake fumigations and fire drills at Infinity Ward to get the pair away from their computers so they could be imaged, but to Fenady's knowledge, he didn't think these machinations occurred.

It's already known that Activision has investigated West and Zampella's actions while they were employed by the company, although it remains to be seen what impact Fenady and Rose's testimony may have on the trial, which beings on May 29. Activision is seeking to dismiss parts of Fenady's testimony under attorney-client privilege.

For more on the filing, head over to Giant Bomb.