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Reactions: Former Infinity Ward heads Respawning with EA

One of the biggest stories within the industry over the past couple months took an interesting turn on Monday, as Jason West and Vince Zampella, the former heads of Infinity Ward who were fired by publisher Activision for alleged breach of contract, have formed a new studio by the name of Respawn Entertainment. West and Zampella went out of their way to ensure that all Intellectual Properties created at Respawn will be wholly owned by the studio, but that hasn’t stopped EA from supporting the respected developers through the EA Partners program. EA is already funding Respawn as it searches for offices and builds its roster, and whenever the studio’s first game comes out, it will be published by Acitivision’s biggest rival.

While West and Zampella have admitted that they have no idea what their next title will be, they promise that it will be big and that it won’t be “exploited.” It has also been confirmed that Respawn will have no involvement with EA’s Battlefield or Medal of Honor franchises–the founders of Infinity Ward will be generating new IP.

Based on the mounting number of resignations at Infinity Ward, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Respawn populated by several familiar faces. While West and Zampella haven’t officially hired anybody yet, the timing of lead designer Todd Alderman, lead software engineer Francesco Gigliotti, veteran programmer Jon Shiring, and Modern Warfare 2 lead designer Mackey McCandlish’s departures is probably more than coincidence.

There’s still plenty of speculation over what will happen with the rights to the Modern Warfare license, what with the suits and counter-suits, but frankly, I’m more interested in seeing the team at Respawn work on something new.

I think EA Games president Frank Gibeau sums the whole situation up nicely with this analogy: “I liken this to when the [Boston] Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the [New York] Yankees for a ham sandwich and a few thousand dollars. That worked out pretty well for him.”

West, Zampella, Gibeau talk Respawn-ing [GameSpot]

Ex-Modern Warfare Creators Haven’t Hatched New Game Idea Yet, Won’t Make Battlefield [Kotaku]

Author: Cody

Tags: activision, ea, infinity ward, modern warfare, respawn entertainment