The creators of the hit videogame franchise Call of Duty, who were fired by Activision Blizzard last month, launched a new studio Monday and announced a partnership with Activision rival Electronic Arts.
Jason West and Vince Zampella said Respawn Entertainment will assemble a world-class team of designers, artists and engineers and has awarded EA exclusive worldwide publishing and distribution rights to future games.
Respawn Entertainment marks a fresh start for Jason and me, Zampella said in a statement. For the past decade we led a great development team and poured our hearts into creating an epic game franchise in the first-person shooter format.
Today we hope to do it all over again – open a new studio, hire a great team, and create brand new games with a new partner, EA, he said.
Now that the team is in control of the games and brands, we can ensure that the fans are treated as well as they deserve, West added.
The launch of Respawn Entertainment, which will be based in Encino, California, comes a month after the sudden and acrimonious departure of Zampella and West from Activision.
In its March 1 annual report, Activision, a unit of French conglomerate Vivendi, did not name Zampella and West but said it was conducting an internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward, the wholly owned subsidiary which developed the Call of Duty franchise.
Zampella and West were dismissed the next day and turned around and filed a lawsuit against Activision accusing it of firing them before they were to be paid substantial royalty payments as part of their existing contracts.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 came out only in November but was still the highest-grossing videogame last year.
It raked in an estimated $550 million worldwide in its first five days to set an all-time entertainment industry record, eclipsing Hollywood s biggest blockbusters.
Modern Warfare 2 is the sixth title in a Call of Duty franchise that has won a devoted following since the first version was released in 2003. -AFP
