Call of Duty publisher Activision sued over use of Humvee vehicles in games

By Gabe Gurwin November 9, 2017

humvee maker sues activision call of duty codlawsuit — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Call of Duty series went back to its roots this year with Call of Duty: WWII, but that hasn’t stopped Humvee manufacturer AM General from taking issue with some of the previous games in Activision’s long-running shooter franchise. The vehicle company has accused Activision of using its Humvee vehicles without permission in several of its games, which it said has contributed to their success.

The lawsuit — “AM General LLC v. Activision Blizzard, Inc. et al” — was filed on Tuesday, and said that the success of the Call of Duty series has come “only at the expense of AM General and consumers who are deceived into believing that AM General licenses the games or is somehow connected with or involved in the creation of the games.”

The Humvee, or “High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle,” has been featured in the series dating back to 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. It made subsequent appearances in both of that game’s sequels as well as 2012’s Call of Duty: Black Ops II and 2013’s Call of Duty: Ghosts. It isn’t featured in this year’s installment, nor has it been in the recent futuristic games, so the timing of the lawsuit is perplexing.

Call of Duty has featured prominent brand names in its games in the past, perhaps most notably the EOTech holographic rifle sight. As the games moved further into the future, many of its real-world weapons and equipment were replaced with completely fictional creations, including hovering vehicles, anti-gravity grenades, and weapons firing concentrated beams of energy instead of bullets.

AM General’s assertion that the Humvee vehicles have contributed to Call of Duty’s success seem a little bizarre, as the series doesn’t typically feature driving sequences. Instead, the vehicles are scattered throughout maps to be used as cover and can be destroyed with the use of explosives like grenades or C4. In Electronic Arts’ Battlefield series, the Humvee has also been available, and it’s usable in in the games’ multiplayer modes. Here, it can be used in a weaponized variant, armed with a machine gun to take down enemy players.

Call of Duty: WWII is now available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

The best weapons in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

A soldier standing in an armory.

To the layman, every gun in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 probably seems the same. They all shoot bullets, right? In reality, that couldn't be further from the truth. Even when you take player skill out of the equation, each gun has vastly different stats and applications that make some, even within their own category, just plain better choices for everyone. Each gun is broken down into various stats, including recoil, ADS speed, damage, and much more, which makes it hard to easily compare them. When you factor in just how many guns are available as you level up and keep unlocking more, the prospect of picking the best ones becomes overwhelming. If you're trying to build the ideal loadout to dominate the current meta, these are the best weapons in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for each weapon type.

We will detail the top picks per each class, and then list the rest in terms of how they rank.
Best assault rifles in MW3

Gaming

The best Call of Duty games, ranked

Soldier holding weapon in Modern Warfare II.

Few video game series are as influential and popular as Call of Duty. The annualized franchise throws players into fast-paced battles across various historical time periods -- along with fictional eras, as well. Call of Duty has taken us to World War II, the Cold War, a modern setting, and even to the future.

Although it's one of the most successful video game franchises out there, Call of Duty's quality varies significantly, with some fantastic entries in the series, but many mediocre ones as well. But which Call of Duty games are worth your time and which ones should you skip? To answer that question, we've ranked all the mainline entries in the series, with details about why you should or shouldn't play that particular game.

Gaming

Microsoft has acquired Activision Blizzard: What does that mean for you?

The key art from when Microsoft finally acquired Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft now owns Activision Blizzard. After Microsoft worked to appease regulators and fend off litigation, the $69 billion acquisition first announced in January 2022 is finally complete. Now that Activision Blizzard is officially part of Microsoft and a sister company to Xbox Game Studios and ZeniMax Media, that raises an important question: What does this acquisition mean for you as a player?

Following this acquisition, Microsoft will own more gaming studios, the availability of Call of Duty and other Activision Blizzard franchises will shift, and unionization efforts within Activision Blizzard could gain a bit more ground. If you're wondering what happens next, here's our thorough examination of how the deal could impact players moving forward.
Microsoft's new game studios
With this acquisition, Microsoft will now own all the developers under the Activision Blizzard company. That includes the teams at Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, and King, the latter of which is the developer behind the wildly popular mobile series Candy Crush. The acquisition encompasses the following subsidiaries as well: Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, High Moon Studios, Beenox, Toys for Bob, Activision Shanghai Studio, Solid State Studios, Demonware, Digital Legends, and Major League Gaming. Microsoft now also owns the rights to all of the games and IP Activision Blizzard previously released.