EA Talks Respawn Entertainment, Calls Modern Warfare ‘Damaged’
May 11th, 2010 | Written by Anthony Perez | Topic: Industry News
So if you’re not fully caught up on the situation, here’s what happened. Infinity Ward, the development studio behind the best iterations of the Call of Duty franchise including Modern Warfare 2, had its head honchos axed by its publisher Activision because of insubordination. Basically, the brains behind Infinity Ward, Jason West and Vince Zampella, were planning on ditching Infinity Ward for their own studio because they were at odds with Activision.
They did just that and started Respawn Entertainment. In the time since, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has commented and Infinity Ward has lost an additional 35 employees to resignations.
Oh and Activision’s biggest rival, EA, signed an exclusive publishing deal with Respawn. Almost forgot that point.
Now, EA Partners chief David DeMartini has spilled his two cents on the matter to CVG, which essentially says that EA would’ve never let that happen, the Modern Warfare brand is “damaged,” and they can’t wait to start banking on Respawn’s genius.
It’s kind of hard to answer that question because Infinity Ward was an internal studio of Activision. It’s not like they were an independent studio that was just contracted by Activision, they were an internal studio of Activision.
But what I’d say is you haven’t seen any internal studios up and leave EA. If Infinity Ward was an internal studio at EA would things have been different? I think yes – but I’m biased.
I don’t like to see that go on in our industry at all. That was a hugely successful franchise. I’m sure Vince and Jason didn’t want to get fired and now looking at it the whole thing’s kind of blown up.
A franchise is damaged – maybe never to be the same again. But then at the same time other things spring up. As one thing dies, you have Respawn popping up – who are going to do other great things in collaboration with us now.
You know, I guess everything happens for a reason. You just kind of look at a situation and you shake your head and go: ‘How did this all come to be?’ But it did come to be and we just couldn’t be happier to work with Vince and Jason and the team at Respawn.
The problem is that while EA is a brilliant publisher with serious marketing ability, it’s interesting to see how the relationship will work. Zampella and West had great success with Modern Warfare, but who knows if they can strike oil twice. Plus, they’re creatives who were interested in starting an independent studio and EA is another mega-huge corporation. Granted, EA’s initiatives and games have improved over the last few years as they’ve celebrated creativity and taken chances on new franchises, but it doesn’t mean this relationship will be smooth.
Use Facebook to Comment on this Post
Related posts:
- Review: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360, PS3)
- E3 2009: Modern Warfare 2 Preview (PS3, Xbox 360)
- Forthcoming Exodus from Infinity Ward?
- Infinity Ward Exodus Continues, Activision Comments
- Preview: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
