Infinity Ward has lost two of the most creative people it had, Vince Zampella and Jason West. Activision Blizzard has again come off as the bad guy when dealing with one of its most successful studios. One would think that rival publisher Electronic Arts, which has seen Infinity Ward steal the thunder from its Medal of Honor series, would be a bit happy about the development.

But John Schappert, who is the Chief Operation Officer at Electronic Arts, said at the GDC event in San Francisco that he was disappointed in the way Infinity Ward and Activision Blizzard engaged in a legal battle rather than collaborating on the creation of more videogames.

Scahppert stated that two important game developers should not “be spending their future dealing with litigation and lawyers rather than crafting the next great experience, I don't think that's good for them, I don't think that's good for our industry.”

The Electronic Arts man expressed his hope that the pair would be creating games even as they continue their legal battle while saying that the “mothership,” which is Activision Blizzard, is using legal action as a way to actually create revenue. There was no mention of the rumored contacts between Zampella, West and Electronic Arts, mentioned by Activision in its inquiry of the situation.

With a new group formed at Activision to direct the evolution of Modern Warfare and Call of Duty, the publisher will probably continue to derive great revenue from the franchise for some time. On March 30, gamers who use an Xbox 360 home console to play Modern Warfare 2 will get a chance to download a new Map Pack, which will probably sell more than 1 million copies in quick fashion. A fresh full Call of Duty experience will be delivered in the fall by developer Treyarch, with the action likely to move to the battlefields of Vietnam.