EA Expects "Great Things" From Respawn Entertainment
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2By now, everyone should be quite familiar with the Activision/Infinity Ward fiasco and the resulting start-up studio, Respawn Entertainment.
Ex-IW bosses Vince Zampella and Jason West are at the head of Respawn ('wink') and since they opened their doors, they inked a big publishing deal with Activision's rival, EA, and also managed to snag more than a few Infinity Ward members. In fact, IW has lost around 35 employees since everything went down, although Activision still says the studio "remains important." We keep picturing EA giggling in a corner during all of this (remember when they said Activision went and "shot their Triple Crown-winning horse?") and now, they're talking again. This time, EA Partners boss David DeMartini told CVG that he believes Respawn "will achieve great things in the future," and he "fears for the future of the Modern Warfare franchise" following the mass exodus from IW. When asked what might have been different if IW had been part of EA Partners, DeMartini said:
"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."
He goes on to say that "a franchise is damaged" and it may "never be the same again." He also says that perhaps everything happens for a reason and now, EA really "couldn't be happier to work with Vince and Jason and the team at Respawn." Yeah, we still sense a little chortle beneath all that diplomacy.
5/11/2010 9:24:14 PM John Shepard
Put this on your webpage or blog:
Email this to a friend
Follow PSX Extreme on Twitter
Comments (22 posts)
WorldEndsWithMe
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 @ 10:08:34 PM
Reply
Unfortunately, if I do wind up caring about an integrated multiplayer aspect, buy it cheap won't help much with this new super lame $10 subscription fee to play online. I feel bad for xbots, since that will be on top of paying for LIVE too if they don't buy the game(s) brand new.
5 up, 2 down
dachemists
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 @ 11:23:13 AM
feel bad for the 360 boys
0 up, 0 down
Bugzbunny109
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 @ 10:10:33 PM
Reply
0 up, 0 down
Qubex
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 @ 10:21:15 PM
Reply
Go for it Respawn!
Q!
"Respawn | Entertainment Reborn"
2 up, 0 down
chicoda1nonly
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 @ 10:31:50 PM
Reply
2 up, 0 down
BTNwarrior
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 @ 11:56:52 PM
Reply
6 up, 0 down
Dancemachine55
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 @ 12:14:23 AM
Reply
Then people will realise it's pretty crap and just a rehash of MW2, and MW1.
Then the trades will come flowing in and the game will be worth $2 on ebay within a year of release.
3 up, 2 down
Godslim
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 @ 5:50:43 AM
2 up, 2 down
ace_boon_coon
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 @ 2:55:50 PM
2 up, 1 down
kraygen
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 @ 12:49:48 AM
Reply
1 up, 0 down
OriginalSin
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 @ 2:18:18 AM
Reply
They couldn't care less... They just assume that MW3 will be great because everyone else says so...
3 up, 2 down
Godslim
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 @ 5:53:56 AM
2 up, 7 down
Imagi
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 @ 7:20:29 AM
By supporting the games you validate their tactics which will make other publishers take note and follow suite. People like you are effectively saying that is is O.K to raise the price of games, take the creativity and fun out of the development process and welcome paying for more and more DLC that should have been included with the game.
It is no coincidence that all Activision seems to release these days is endless squeals and titles with peripheral gimmicks to raise profits even more. They have no new IP's and some that they did they scrapped as they did not want to take the risk, such as Brutal Legend which was luckily picked up by another publisher and went on to be a great success.
5 up, 1 down
Alienange
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 @ 11:55:28 AM
1 up, 3 down
___________
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 @ 3:16:29 AM
Reply
i mean when a developer releases a game and within 6 months becomes THE BEST SELLING GAME OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!! than you cant blame them for having high expectations.
1 up, 2 down
Imagi
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 @ 7:09:16 AM
Reply
0 up, 0 down
BeezleDrop
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 @ 10:23:25 AM
Reply
Buying MW3 just because of the name is pretty ignorant. From the shooters I am looking for originality and at least some sort of creativeness these days, not just Military Shooters that are common place these days. Oh and by the way, MW2 is NOT the best selling game of all time, it won the Most Overrated game of all Time. And with all of this praise isn't it funny no one nominated it for GOTY?
1 up, 0 down
Alienange
Wednesday, May 12, 2010 @ 12:08:30 PM
Reply
As for Respawn, well, it's not just EA that is expecting big things. They have the know how to make millions of gamers very happy.
1 up, 0 down
wiiplay
Sunday, May 16, 2010 @ 5:34:18 AM
Reply
I have been getting rather sick of the Call Of Duty franchise, but have continued to buy it all of these years because I know I will have fun temporarily.
I will personally be buying Modern Warfare 3, just so I can continue the epic story-line.
I understand that it may not be the story originally intended by the visionaries at Infinity Ward, but I believe I can survive with this knowledge, as I do not know the original story-line to complain either way. Who knows, the new story-line being developed may actually be better scripted than the original. We will never know this, so cannot accurately complain.
As said before about estimated sales, I agree with most people.
I too believe that MW3 will sell incredibly well due to the continuation of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series, as well as simply having the now-famous "Modern Warfare" text on the front of the cover.
Some people in the comment section also believe that MW3 will sell terribly and have a price reduction by the end of one year of sales.
This is just a guess, and cannot be proven until the product is released.
*Don't judge a book by its' cover* can be used to prove my point, as even if a book looks terribly on the front, or its' pages are torn, the content within may be well worth a read.
My point is, don't judge a game that has not yet been released.
Also, as a final note, I'd like to wish everyone at both Infinity Ward and Respawn Entertainment great success with their future products.
0 up, 0 down
BeezleDrop
Reply
Tuesday, May 11, 2010 @ 9:49:52 PM