Jason-West posts

It's still in the embryonic stage at this point (just two employees, no game and no physical office) but the founders of the newly revealed Respawn Entertainment, Vince Zampella and Jason West, have still been hitting the interview circuit hard today. Our sister site Joystiq talked with the duo, who previously co-founded Infinity Ward and launched the Call of Duty first person shooter series with former publisher Activision.

While there is still no game dev under development yet, the new team won't be working on an established property for their new publisher Electronic Arts but rather on their own original projects. Respawn will also own the game's IP which should allow them to expand any game they make into other properties on their own (like movies, comic books, toys and the like) without having to go through EA. They will just be working on one game at a time, at least at first, and naturally they are starting up the hiring process.

Meanwhile Activision, who are currently in a legal battle with Zampella and West after the publisher dismissed them from Infinity Ward last month, issued their own reaction to the Respawn Entertainment announcement: "This agreement comes as no surprise to Activision given the myriad of improper activities detailed in the cross-complaint filed on Friday against Jason West and Vince Zampella. We look forward to continuing to work with Infinity Ward's deep bench of proven talent on exciting new projects."

If you though that the fired heads of Infinity Ward would be living in a van down by the river by now, think again. The Los Angeles Times web site reports that Vince Zampella and Jason West are now being represented by the big time Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists Agency.

You can bet that the folks that founded the development studio behind the powerhouse Call of Duty franchise will be getting some big offers for their next gig and CAA will likely be in a position to help them make that next big deal. Even with their current legal fight with their former publishers Activision over (allegedly) lack of bonus pay for their last game Modern Warfare 2, you can bet that West and Zampella will command a large sum of money for whomever hires them.

Following all the rumors that started to hit the Internet late last night,. Activision has now officially confirmed that the two founders of their development studio Infinity Ward, Jason West and Vince Zampella are indeed no longer with the developer. Activision vets Steve Pearce and Steve Ackrich are the new "interim" heads of Infinity Ward. Activision's press release did not address what they put in their annual report on Monday which the company claims there were "breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward." "This news was buried in an otherwise upbeat press announcement where the publisher announced plans to expand their Call of Duty franchise into other genres.

The press release confirmed what has been known for a while; Infinity Ward is developing two downloadable expansions for 2009's hit shooter Modern Warfare 2 that will be released later this year. An all new Call of Duty game from developer Treyarch will be released in the fall of 2010 but no setting was announced. In 2011 another new Call of Duty game will be released but no developer for that game was revealed.

The publisher also confirmed what many folks had speculated on in the past couple of months; that yet another Call of Duty game is in the works at the newly formed Sledgehammer Games developer, formed by the former leaders of EA's Visceral Games. Sledgehammer's Call of Duty game will be an action-adventure title rather than a first person shooter but no release date was announced. In addition, Activision is chatting with a number of unnamed partners to bring a Call of Duty game to Asian countries, presumably as an online-only game.