Infinity Ward Founders Developing A 'Big Blockbuster'
Jason West and Vince Zampella discuss their new EA publishing deal with IGN.
April 12, 2010 - Infinity Ward founders and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare designers Jason West and Vince Zampella announced this morning the formation of Respawn Entertainment, an independent studio that will develop games under the EA Partners program.
In an interview with IGN, West and Zampella discussed their new publishing deal with Electronic Arts, their desire to have control over their franchises, and making sure to not forget about the fans of their games.
While details on the team's direction are slim, Respawn Entertainment's first project could rival that of Call of Duty in terms of budget size and marketing blitz.
"It's going to be a big blockbuster; we know what we want to do in terms of scope and impact," West told IGN. "In terms of the game itself, it's entirely up in the air. The sky's the limit and we're focusing on hiring as a team right now."
The day after West and Zampella were fired from Activision the two received offers from just about every gaming publisher. West said the EA Partners program offered the best and most creative deal.
"We talked to all the major publishers and we were presented with deals," added West. "It really comes down to who's going to respect our culture, give us the freedom to do what we want to do, and let us own the IP so we can assure quality, and EA Partners did that for us."
Zampella said that while he and West were let go from Activision only a month ago, the two didn't feel they needed to take an extended vacation before getting back into game development.
"Gaming is in our blood. It's what we like to do," said Zampella. "We don't want to sit around idle. For us it was exciting to get back to doing what we love. It was necessary for us to do that. There's a lot to do and we're just starting today. We still don't have an office space or health plans. We don't have anything right now."
But while West and Zampella are in some ways under the EA corporate umbrella, that doesn't mean they'll have an influence on other EA titles, such as Battlefield or Medal of Honor.
"The EA Partners program allows the independent developers to remain completely independent. We integrate as closely as they would like," said David DeMartini, Senior Vice President & Global GM of EA Partners. "It's not really part of the program that all of a sudden outside independents are advising internal teams."
"We're really delighted with the quality of the games we released last year in our internal teams, but we're equally delighted with Respawn Entertainment and the new team they're going to be building starting today."
DeMartini added this deal could signal a major change in the developer/publisher relationship going forward. The old model of publishers owning top-tier developers and its gaming properties may be going away.
"I think that really is old-school thought process, that publishers are going to come in and own the IP and control the developer," he said. "The EA Partners program has been thriving over the last three years as we have taken a more progressive and realistic approach."
"When you hire the best in the industry, the best in the industry want to control their own destiny, and I think that's what this deal is really all about. Hopefully that's why the EA Partners program was attractive to the guys starting up Respawn, and hopefully it will be attractive to others in the future," DeMartini added.
West, however, was a little more straight-forward with his prediction of developers remaining independent.
"If publishers keep firing the heads of their top franchises, this will become a bigger trend in the future."
Those looking forward to what Respawn has in store can be assured the team is focusing on listening and delivering what fans want.
"We expect that to be a big part of our direction for sure," said West. "It's all about the fans and giving the fans what they want and giving them compelling entertainment experiences that they're going to love."
I think a lot of the arcadish features were demanded by Activison so that more people wanna play it.. now Activision is talking about making a COD subscription based game.. damn. Activision milked the Guitar Hero series until it really died down. Guess COD is next, since 3 different companies are making COD games now.
