The creators of one of the biggest franchises in gaming history, Call of Duty, who were fired a few months ago by Activision are now officially in bed with their enemies EA. The talented duo of Jason West and Vince Zampella, former heads of Infinity Ward, have now formed a new company, Respawn Entertainment with the backing of EA who will be publishing all future titles from the newly formed studio.
The long running saga involved the duo suing Activision and then recently Activision counter suing them for scheming to “hijack Activision’s assets for their own personal gain.”
The new company, based in California, will make games for the EA Partners label, which means it will remain an independent company from EA since they did not want a similar saga to ensue again. West and Zampella’s former studio, Infinity Ward, is still under full control of Activision.
Zampella said,
Respawn Entertainment marks a fresh start for Jason and me. 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.
It was pretty much expected that the duo behind one of the most successful franchises, Call of Duty, and the most successful game, Modern Warfare 2, were going to be snapped up by EA sooner or later.
