On Friday, Activision Blizzard Inc. came out with guns roaring in its legal war with two ex-lead developers of Call of Duty.

According to the lawsuit that read like a dramatic Hollywood script, the video game publisher, Activision, asserted that it sacked Jason West and Vincent Zampella in March since the two "morphed from valued, responsible executives into insubordinate and self-serving schemers who attempted to hijack Activision's assets for their own personal gain".

The Santa Monica Company indicted West and Zampella of breaching their employment agreements by meeting with a competitor publisher, deemed to be Electronic Arts Inc. and using illegal ways to sign up former coworkers to join them in forming a new independent game development studio.

A lawyer for the duo called these allegations "false and outrageous" and said that Activision itself offered to develop West and Zampella's studio as part of a bond renegotiation last year.

Activision's lawsuit is filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Meanwhile, West and Zampella had also sued their previous employer on March 3, two days after being dismissed as the leaders of Infinity Ward, the Encino-based studio bought by Activision in 2002. Infinity Ward has created Call of Duty games since the setting up of the franchise in 2003.

In their lawsuit, West and Zampella accused that Activision sacked them to evade paying them royalties that they had earned from November's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 that has made nearly $1.3 billion global profits.

The lawsuit alleges that Activision owes the pair a minimum of $36 million in royalties and damages.