Fri, Jul 01, 2011 | 04:05 BST
40 Infinity Ward staffers on Respawn team
Here’s something we missed in the launch of the new Respawn Entertainment website: a total of 40 former Infinity Ward staffers.
Gamefront produced the tally while scoping the website’s company page.
That’s three quarters of the 53 employees listed so far. The site doesn’t make any bones about it, happily referencing the chops of Call of Duty creators Jason West and Vince Zampella.
Respawn also employs six former Sony Santa Monica staffers, which is not entirely surprising as all three studios are based in Los Angeles.
It’s not clear how many staff Infinity Ward had before it began bleeding off to ReSpawn, although a credits roll created by PC gamer over a year ago saw many significant, senior roles ending over the affair.
Respawn was formed by West and Zampella, founders of the Activision owned Infinity Ward, after the pair were fired for allegedly consorting with EA.
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Posted in: Activision Blizzard, EA, Jobs, Trade
Tags: infinity ward, Jason West, respawn, Respawn Entertainment, vince zampella
14 comments
#1
The_Deleted
01/07/11, 6:46 am
Adds a lot of weight to West/Zampella’ s story. You don’t leave a company if you’re happy there, just because your friends do.
And game development seems to be the sweatshop of the modern west.
#2
Johnny Cullen
01/07/11, 7:47 am
Read Jason West’s bio on the Respawn website. I swear that’s properly taking a poke at Activision.
#3
Blerk
01/07/11, 8:39 am
So that’s 40 out of how many? I’ve no idea how big the Infinity Ward team actually was.
#4
GamezIdiot
01/07/11, 9:06 am
It was about a hundred. From the firing pan into the fire, though, gamedev isn’t nine to five.
#5
NightCrawler1970
01/07/11, 10:39 am
Wow, sure join the team, and Crush Acti…
#6
Yoshi
01/07/11, 11:02 am
@2 OMG XD I just saw that hahaha
That’s most definitely a poke at Acti 
#7
G1GAHURTZ
01/07/11, 11:28 am
Which means that their next title should be a REAL CoD beater.
#8
Erthazus
01/07/11, 11:34 am
REAL COD beaters are already on the market since 1999.
These guys won’t do something with the CoD formula again. They are going to differentiate from them as much as possible and probably will take something popular from EA’s chest of great IP’s.
#9
Erthazus
01/07/11, 11:39 am
ahahahaa
To do: Ride horse in my pajamas
).
Have my code in a 90 rated game (Beetle Adventure Racing)
Lead best team in the world in the creation of multiple 90+ rated multi-billion dollar franchises.
Get paid for it.
Lead best team in the world in the creation of new gameplay experiences (with dedis
they btw have a lot of great artists. From god Of war team. So i expect a great art direction and on software and engineering staff… not so much.
#10
G1GAHURTZ
01/07/11, 11:50 am
Metacritic? Check.
Sales? Check.
Most played charts? Check.
Yep. CoD is the number 1 FPS.
Fact.
Until an FPS BEATS it in these areas, they’ve all failed.
#11
DSB
01/07/11, 11:53 am
Indeed. There’s no way Respawn or EA want them handling old IPs. That would be a huge waste of what they could do. I don’t think you sign onto a partners program deliberately meant to keep the publisher out, just so you can have their lukewarm leftovers.
Looking forward to seeing them return though. If the game is half as awesome as Tu Bui’s staff picture, that’s an instant preorder.
#12
Erthazus
01/07/11, 12:12 pm
@DSB, making FPS in the C&C setting? Halt. I want that. One decent futuristic FPS from that franchise.
#13
G1GAHURTZ
01/07/11, 12:19 pm
Respawn have already confirmed that they’re working on “a multi-platform product based on new video game IP and funded through its publishing deal with Electronic Arts, one of the top publishers in the industry.”
http://www.develop-online.net/news/38135/New-Respawn-project-details-emerge
#14
DSB
01/07/11, 12:23 pm
Of corpse.