Ex-Infinity Ward Employees Join Respawn Entertainment


Recommended Posts

April 22, 2010 - Former Infinity Ward lead designer Todd Alderman and several others have become the first known employees to join the newly founded game studio Respawn Entertainment.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Alderman joined Respawn Entertainment the same month he left Infinity Ward, and his new job title is Lead Game Designer. Lead Environment Artist Chris Cherubini, and Lead Animators John Paul Messerly and Mark Grigsby also joined the new group.

Software Engineer Rayme Vinson confirmed on his facebook profile he joined Respawn and programmer Jon Shiring confirmed via Twitter he will be joining the team, too.

Respawn is headed by Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella, who were both fired by Activision last month. The duo announced a new publishing deal with Electronic Arts through its partners program in early April.

It's expected several more former Infinity Ward employees will join Respawn. Since the firings of West and Zampella, 13 known employees have left the studio. While there are no details about what type of game Respawn plans to work on, West recently told IGN in an interview the studio will develop a "big blockbuster."

Activision acknowledge Infinity Ward has seen an exodus of employees, but the publisher remains confident in the studio saying there is a "deep bench" of talent remaining.

source: ign

good for them

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No surprise there really :) Would be nice if they could retain the Modern Warfare IP, but I think it belongs to Infinity Ward.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They could make a game just like Modern Warfare and give it a new name though!

Six days in Fallujah? :rofl:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sweet! I expect an awesome game from these guys in three to four years. I'm looking forward to it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good for them!! The guys over at ACES studio formed their own company too (Cascade Gaming Foundry........very appropriate name :p), I wish them creativity and the best! Hope to see some awesome products!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Consolidating two stories in this post:

1. Activision sued for up to $125 million by current, former Infinity Ward employees.

40%. Yes. Not a typo. Forty percent of the guys who worked on MW2 is suing Activision.

2. Almost 30 people have left IW..

The number was previously low twenties, late teens. To put this in perspective. It took 22 people to make Infinity Ward and the next game the studio they left (2015 Inc) made (Men of Valour) bombed like a brick out of a window.

This heard on Bobbys twitter account: "LOL DEPLOYING GOLDEN PARACHUTE"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd hate to be Blizzard about now, what a **** merger laugh.gif

As I understand it Blizzard are completely independent of Activision. Though they do look a bit, well, ****ed with no A team any more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sweet! I expect an awesome game from these guys in three to four years. I'm looking forward to it.

Same here, hopefully something to compete with the Modern Warfare series.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Same here, hopefully something to compete with the Modern Warfare series.

There's going to be compo coming from half gutted studio, who has half the time to make a game? :p

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is brilliant. Not because I hate Activision, but because my understanding of the situation is the unfair dismissal of the founders of IW, followed by the walkout of nearly 50% of the dev team. So what do you do when you have a great team that gets separated? You bring them together without the people that split you up to begin with.

I'll be really interested to see what happens with Respawn Entertainment. Love the name too, very fitting :laugh:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Analyst: Infinity Ward To Be 'Essentially Closed' After Next Map Pack?

With so many high-profile defections from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 studio Infinity Ward -- not to mention two separate lawsuits brought against publisher Activision by co-founders and former employees -- the studio's future may be in question, says one analyst.

"Continued defections from their Infinity Ward studio have created meaningful uncertainty around the future of their Call of Duty: Modern Warfare franchise," says Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey of Activision's current prospects.

According to Hickey, amid lawsuits and widespread employee defections, the outlook's not good: "We expect Infinity Ward studio will be essentially closed after their next map pack release, with development work on Modern Warfare 3 spread between two studios not historically tied to the franchise," he says.

Can we change the name of this thread title to- Infinity Ward: Men who watch unfolding car crashes :laugh:

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.