Activision has obtained court permission to join EA to its lawsuit against former Infinity Ward executives Jason West and Vince Zampella, according to Joystiq.  

You can read more about the recent steps in this increasingly bitter lawsuit here.  What this latest development  means is that, barring any other unforeseen developments, the trial will go ahead on May 23rd, with Activision squaring off against West, Zampella and now EA.  And it looks increasingly like sparks will really fly - especially with some interesting recent revelations about EA allegedly interfering in Modern Warfare 2's map packs...


For EA, those sparks are bad enough from a PR perspective, but what's worse are the financial implications of losing.  Activision is claiming at least $400 million in damages from EA.  SPECULATION ALERT: IF Activision is successful (and that will depend entirely on the court's decision in due course) and IF it wins that level of damages, it would cause a serious headache for EA - a company which in 2010 suffered net losses of $677m and whose net total assets were worth $2.729 billion. That would be a BIG dent in its bottom line.

Still, as I said that's just speculation at the moment - EA could just as easily win.  All this is going to come down to what happens at trial, so roll on May 23rd...

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