CrashToOverride: Maybe. I still think the whole Activision debacle was just Activision being tightwad spendthrifts who can't look beyond their noses at at the future of their company.
By ignoring the contracts that they (and IW) signed so that they can give the IW heads more money?
That can lead to very bad things in the long-run. Either it shows favoritism ("We like these guys enough to give them money that they aren't legally entitled to. Tough noogies") or it leads to a new working dynamic (you get massive bonuses for popular games, in addition to the already existing incentives).
Now, I know, you are going to say "But Gundato, isn't that a good thing? Everyone will compete to make the best game they can and we will benefit". And that is true, to an extent. Friendly competition is great for creative juices. But when your paycheck depends on being better than the guy two offices down, you start to essentially function as separate companies. And then we lose things such as "Oh yeah, Fred from the Montreal team came by and gave me some really cool tips on how to get better performance" and "Dude, Jimmy from the Utah team had a REALLY cool idea for a gun"
Are Activision without fault? Probably not (and definitely not after they withheld pay from the remaining IW guys), but neither are the IW heads.
Also, it is worth remembering: This isn't the first time these guys have had to flee from a "big mean company" who helped them make amazing games. Yeah, they were "being treated like poopy" and the like. But WHY were they "treated like poopy"? It takes two to tango.