West and Zampella have wasted no time in recruiting for their new studio, and will be joined by several colleagues from Infinity Ward.
Modern Warfare creators Vince Zampella and Jason West, who were fired from Infinity Ward for supposed insubordination, have since created a new studio called Respawn, which has reportedly partnered up with EA, which is probably Activision’s biggest rival. Nothing like stabbing your former bosses in the back, eh? Anyhow, over the past couple of days, there have been reports of many employees of Infinity Ward going over to join West and Zampella at their new studio. Todd Alderman’s “announcement” came from him changing his LinkedIn profile to have his job as “lead game designer” for Respawn Entertainment. The studio was only announced a month ago, and reportedly still has no office yet, but this hasn’t stopped people from talking about it, or leaving their current jobs for that matter. They don’t even have a project yet, but the possibilities are great with just those three alone.
Three more joined Alderman in announcing their hiring at Respawn over LinkedIn profile changes in former lead animator, Mark Grigsby, former lead environmental artist, Chris Cherubini, and former lead animator, John Paul Messerly, who all worked for Infinity Ward. Former Infinity Ward software engineer, Rayme C. Vinson, announced his hiring over Facebook, as did former lead designer, Mackey McCandlish. A former programmer for Infinity Ward by the name of Jon Shiring also joined the bandwagon, but announced his hiring over Twitter. All these departures were announced three days ago, and two days ago, we saw five more cross over. Senior designers Mohammad Alavi, Chad Grenier, and Brent McLeod all departed, alongside designer Jason McCord and programmer Chris Lambert. Activision has made clear that hey are determined to keep Infinity Ward afloat due to the fact that it rakes in the money for them, but this mass exodus that is occurring will make it increasingly harder for them to do so. Plus, the general feeling around the gaming industry is that these are not the last of the developers to leave the studio, as the number of departures has already hit 17. Now don’t get me wrong, departures from game studios are common, especially after big hits, but not in the fashion that is being witnessed here.