West/Zampella form new studio under EA partners

[David]

Ex-Infinity Ward bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella have created a new studio called Respawn Entertainment that will work exclusively with EA as part of the EA Partners program.

"Respawn Entertainment marks a fresh start for Jason and me," said Vince Zampella in a statement. "For the past decade we led a great development team and poured our hearts into creating an epic game franchise.

"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."

"We're excited," added Jason West. "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." Oof.

The studio will focus for now on assembling a "world-class" team, so send over a CV if you fancy signing on.

EA Games boss Frank Gibeau added: "This is the start of a great publishing partnership - one that I expect will develop blockbuster game franchises. 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."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/west-zampella-to-work-with-ea

Who didn't see that one coming?

[Sly Reflex]

Now a new group of gamers can suffer the opening weekend on EA's servers.

[Hendo]

Looking forward to see what they come out with. No surprise with them going with EA.

[HandsomeDead]

Good for them I suppose.

[David]

I wonder how many of the IW crew will jump ship? I guess the ones that left last week are, but I'm guessing Activision will want to keep as many of them as possible.

[TopGunKnacker]

they ran away from ea to start IW, funny how the world works. assuming Respawn makes IW-CoD-quality games, and Craptivision are stuck with Treyarch-quality CoDs, EA pretty much has the 'modern warfare' themed fps malarkey sewn up with battlefield, medal of honour and respawn

[Hendo]

I'm still interested to see what comes of the "action-adventure" Call of Duty because it's being made by one of the main guys behind Dead Space, but I think I'll be passing on this years' CoD and I might try out the new Medal of Honor instead, everything subject to change, obviously.

[TopGunKnacker]

because it's being made by one of the main guys behind Dead Space

yeah that piqued my interest too. but i have a horrible feeling you wont see as much of the man's creativity when he's making a game in an established franchise

[Craymen Edge]

I'm still interested to see what comes of the "action-adventure" Call of Duty because it's being made by one of the main guys behind Dead Space.

I'm still confused about that guy leaving to set up a studio to work on franchise titles for activision. Maybe he stands to be a lot better off, or maybe being the 3rd COD studio is not what what he thought was going to happen.

Also, in news today, 2 more senior IW staff have resigned, and IGN is saying a fifth guy has left.

[Hendo]

There's an interesting interview with West and Zampella on Eurogamer, most interesting bit is right at the end, certainly makes you wonder where those guys from IW will go.

Eurogamer: So, you guys leave quite a lot of talented people behind you at Infinity Ward, and there's a danger, because of Activision's alleged behaviour in this affair, they may now be vilified by the gaming public. Perhaps you could reassure gamers - is a game that's made by Infinity Ward as it now stands still going to be worth their time?

Jason West: We can't comment on anything...

Vince Zampella: Yeah, that's not in our area...

Jason West: We're not associated with that in any way and we don't comment on other people.

Eurogamer: Sure, but you've worked there for a long time and those are your guys... You must feel that the work that they do is valuable and that it still has merit.

EA Publicist: Hi, sorry Tom. These guys can't comment on Infinity Ward.

[TopGunKnacker]

most interesting bit is right at the end, certainly makes you wonder where those guys from IW will go.

it just sounded like they cant talk about IW for legal reasons to me

[Hendo]

Maybe, but I interpreted it that they knew they were gonna pretty much gut the IW studio for their own.

[Sly Reflex]

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/867904-call-of-duty-creators-switch-on-respawn-website

The implosion at Infinity Ward is one of the most bizarre stories in gaming, but the short version is that two of the creators of Call Of Duty - Vince Zampella and Jason West - were sacked by Activision not long after the release of Modern Warfare 2.

Activision claims they were colluding with Electronic Arts to set-up a new development studio and spirit away staff and company secrets. West and Zampella claim that Activision was trying to do them and the rest of the team out of their royalties. Lawsuits were fired off in both direction and around 40 employees left Infinity Ward to start work at Respawn.

That's old news though, the question now is: what new game are Respawn working on? You'd have to say that some manner of first person shooter was the obvious guess, but there are no guarantees -especially as up until yesterday evening their website was just a single email link.

Now though the official website is filled with job ads, comments and pictures of Respawn's offices. Although unsurprisingly there's no real explanation as to what the new game is. There are, however, the two screenshots you see on this page.

'Respawn is developing a multi-platform product based on new video game IP and funded through its publishing deal with Electronic Arts, one of the top publishers in the industry,' is the only official description of the game.

In fact the only genuinely useful information on the whole website is that Respawn has also hired a few people from Sony's Santa Monica studio - best known for the God Of War series.

So what are the two pics? The first one looks like maybe it could be some sort of exterior shot, maybe of some sort of tall-chimneyed building? Could the second one maybe be some kind of zoomed in view of a gun? The lettering on it doesn't provide much help - it appears to be a mixture of Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, saying either 'ИWOD' or 'DOMИ' depending on which way up you read it. Or it's just the word 'DOWN' with the letters all wonky.

Whatever it is, we're unlikely to see any kind of official announcement until next year.

Pictures in the link, although there really isn't much to look at.

So there we go. Work is now under way for Respawn's first game. I do hope it harps back to the talents earlier work before they fucked it up by adding stuff that didn't need to be in there. Hopefully they, along with DICE, Dangerclose and 343 And any other big FPS maker will really push what's left of IW, Treyarch and Sledgehammer to better the product they are putting out. That is unless Respawn are making something that isn't a FPS. I'm not about to second guess them what with the people they are hiring. Whatever happens, the competition should be good for us gamers whatever the outcome, right?

[Hendo]

it appears to be a mixture of Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, saying either 'ИWOD' or 'DOMИ' depending on which way up you read it. Or it's just the word 'DOWN' with the letters all wonky.

Err, that's just the word DOWN mirrored. I hate it when stuff like this happens.

[Sly Reflex]

Respawn game release date rumour played down by artist

http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/869975-respawn-game-release-date-rumour-played-down-by-artist

Video gaming's most famous sacking, and consequent lawsuit, led to Call Of Duty creators Vince Zampella and Jason West leaving Activision and setting up their own company at Respawn. With much of the creative team behind Modern Warfare 2 leaving to join them much is expected of their first game - which they're still yet to say anything about.

However, speaking at the Develop Conference in Brighton, art designer Iain McCaig hinted that the game might not be seen until 2015 - implying a long wait until we find out anything concrete.

'I’m having the most fun working with Respawn Entertainment right now, and I hate that I can’t show you guys what I’m doing there until 2015,' McCaig told the assembled audience of developers.

However, he subsequently backtracked on his comments, saying that 2015 was a 'wild guess'.

McCaig said: '2015 was just my wildest guess as to when I would be able to show my artwork, which is usually 12 months or more after release. I have no real information on the release date of the game.'

Still, his comments (whether a genuine shot in the dark, or a more informed statement that Repsawn told him to withdraw) do suggest that the firm are still a long way from releasing anything - likely nothing before 2013 at the earliest, and possibly

The interesting thing is that the next generation of consoles could well have started by then. The Xbox 360 would 10 years old by 2015, and many rumours suggest its successor will be unveiled at E3 2012 and released the following year. Even if Respawn's first title could come out before next gen consoles hit the shelves, it seems unlikely that the firm would want to launch their first game on the moribund tail-end of a previous generation.

According to McCaig, working with Respawn is 'the most exhilarating experience I’ve ever had in my career'. Which is great for him, but not so great for those of us wondering what the next game will be.

The only clues so far have been two blurry screenshots that seem to have been specifically created to imply it's another first person shooter like Call Of Duty - and so are probably red herrings to some degree.

Nobody's expecting Respawn to suddenly start making graphic adventures, but rumours suggest some sort of sci-fi or fantasy setting might be closer to the truth. Certainly that matches with McCaig's background, which has seen him working on the likes of the prequel Star Wars trilogy, Judge Dredd, Terminator 2, two vampire movies and projects related to everything from Doctor Who and Star Trek to Lord Of The Rings.

He's even worked on the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game: in other words he's a massive nerd and we can't imagine him having 'the most exhilarating experience' of his life designing terrorist outfits in some modern day shooter.

2015? Are they making their own fucking console or something?

[retroed]

Respawn will be at E3.

 

http://i.imgur.com/5hrrOZe.png

 

https://twitter.com/VinceZampella/status/306134095371583488