Following on from Steerpike’s excellent news grabs relating to Infinity Ward’s internal staffing squabbles and to continue the sorry saga, you may not be surprised to hear that Jason West and Vincent Zampella have wasted no time in establishing a new studio under the dreary yet appropriate name of Respawn Entertainment. To pile further media misery onto Activision/Blizzard, two more of Infinity Ward’s staff are heading for the exits today, bringing the grand total to six in only 44 days.
Announced via Facebook and Twitter (do people not write resignation letters anymore?) Designer Mackey McCandlish and Programmer Jon Shiring announced their resignations with little indication as to the specific reasons (not that we need any).
“I’m incredibly proud of everything we accomplished and I’m going to miss everyone.” added Shiring, followed swiftly by “We had a great 8+ year run going there” from McCandlish. No doubt West and Zampella have already had them put pen to paper to acquire their services, and I suspect there may be several more set to leave Infinity Ward in the coming weeks.
In less than fighting talk, Activision/Blizzard are quoted as saying “there’s still a deep bench of proven talent at infinity Ward ready to work on exciting new projects.” that’s a new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare then.
Can’t wait.
Email the author of this post at lewisb@tap-repeatedly.com
It seems apt at this point to link to the story below, which made me chuckle the other day.
He’s absolutely right, though.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/crysis-2-writer-slams-modern-warfare-2
Meanwhile Activision has countersued West and Zampella, claiming various nefarious activities, some of which they’re almost certainly guilty of.
Bill Harris at Dubious Quality has another breakdown of the story as it stands, and he makes an interesting point I’ve been wondering about myself: no one at Infinity Ward has ever actually publicly said anything nice about West or Zampella. Ever. While the exodus is definitely going to happen regardless, I wonder whether IW employees liked their bosses. I know a few people from Infinity Ward, but they’ve never mentioned those guys to my memory. I’d never heard of West or Zampella until this story came along.
Curiouser and curiouser.