As reported on Giant Bomb, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, in layman’s terms, set out a hit on former Infinity Ward leaders Jason West and Vince Zampella, telling Activision’s IT director Thomas Fenady to “dig up dirt” on the men who shaped Call of Duty in order to fire them. This news comes from the recently ended lawsuit between Activision and West and Zampella.

During Fenady’s deposition, he claims that he was told to “hack West and Zampella’s emails” to “dig up dirt”. If he got caught? He was told “Don’t worry, Bobby will take care of you.” This is dastardly if I’ve ever heard dastardly before. The worst part? When all this happened, Modern Warfare 2 wasn’t even out yet. The reasoning behind Project Icebreaker is that West and Zampella were in talks with EA to start making games for them instead of churning out Call of Duty games for Activision each year, and Bobby Kotick wouldn’t have it.

The lawsuit in question was recently ended, with both Activision and EA agreeing to a settlement. West and Zampella left Infinity Ward to create Respawn, and are currently working on a shooter with EA publishing.