The Guardian reported that several of Infinity Ward’s staff left Activision a month after two COD development leaders set up their own company. Infinity Ward’s Jason West and Vince Zampella formed a games company called Respawn Entertainment on Monday.

Zampella and West left Activision a month ago in a blur of animosity. Activision accused them of not playing by its rules. It said they “morphed from valued, responsible executives into insubordinate and self-serving schemers,” according to the Guardian.

Now they’re suing each other and the ridiculously successful COD franchise could get put in cold storage as a result.

It’s never a good sign when games publishers think their developers are getting too big for their boots. Or should that be the other way round? In this case it’s a resounding yes.

The result often means that franchises get farmed out to lesser developers or worse, killed off. Activision pulled Infinity Ward in because of the incredible job it did on Medal of Honour: Allied Assault. Then Infinity Ward made Activision £323 million on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Two alone. Surely it can cut Infinity Ward some slack?

Activision will be fully aware of Take-Two’s recent bust up with 3D Realms over the record breaking delay of Duke Nukem Forever. Take Two blamed the ego of 3D Realms founder, George Broussard, and sent the Duke to the glue factory.

Broussard tweeted about Activision and Infinity Ward’s fisticuffs last month, writing, “My take? Activision: “Cheaper to fire the guys, deal with a suit / pay them off than have them control the MW brand/studio.”

We suspect that is exactly what the Activision honchos are thinking.