Former IW COD developers form new studio and partner with EA

[nation]

- Vince Zampella and Jason West, the two former heads of Infinity Ward who have been recently embroiled in an increasingly bitter lawsuit with Activision, have joined EA to form an all-new outfit named Respawn Entertainment.

It marks a homecoming of sorts – both Zampella and West worked on Medal of Honour before going on to help found the hugely successful Call of Duty series. Both left Activision in March, and legal proceedings between the two have quickly heated up.

EA has yet to announce what Respawn Entertainment will be working on – though seeing as the press release includes a plea for new staff, a reveal looks like it will be some way off.

"For the past decade we led a great development team and poured our hearts into creating an epic game franchise," said Zampella, who will act as the General Manager of the new studio which will be based in Encino, California. "We're very proud of what we built – and proud that so many millions of fans enjoyed those games. Today we hope to do it all over again — open a new studio, hire a great team, and create brand new games with a new partner, EA."

West celebrated the news with a none-too-subtle dig at his former paymasters. "We're excited," he said, "Now that the team is in control of the games and brands, we can ensure that the fans are treated as well as they deserve."

President of EA's Games Label was equally excited, saying "Jason and Vince are two of the top creative leaders in the entertainment industry. At EA, we're honored to be their partners and to give them the support they need to hire a team and return to making incredible games."


Activision is in deep shit. EA has Bad Company, Medal of Honor, and whatever franchise these guys plan on making which will be big as they're the Infinity Ward founders.

 

[nation]

Another day has seen the departure of two more senior staff members from developer Infinity Ward, Kotaku reports. Following yesterday's exodus of seven staffers from the Call of Duty creator and studio responsible for Modern Warfare 1 and 2, lead animator Mark Grigsby and lead character animator John Paul Messerly have updated their LinkedIn profiles (here and here, respectively) indicating that they are no longer with the company.

Grigsby had been with the company for five years, working on Call of Duty 2, 4 and Modern Warfare 2. Messerly was an eight-year employee, having contributed to everytitle in the series produced by the studio. In his update, Messerly left the parting note: "So long and thanks for all the COD."

For those keeping count, Grigsby and Messerly bring to 11 the total number of lead developers who have departed Infinity Ward since its studio heads, Vince Zampella and Jason West, were ousted by Activision in early March. Going by IW's company profile on LinkedIn, which puts its employee count at 97, it has lost more than 10 percent of them in just over a week. Activision has said that IW retains a "deep bench of proven talent" -- at least it does for another couple of months, at this rate.

Related. You will see these guys end up in the new studio. Holy shit Infinity Ward has lost over 10% of their staff. Not good.

 

[hndsmepete]

The staff that left Activision realize that their jobs probably weren't secure anymore. If they are willing to break contracts to oust the heads of IW, what does it say about the job of a developer or coder. Activision just comes off very sleazy in this whole thing. I think that with the Modern Warfare team working at EA, Call Of Duty will become old news.