respawn-entertainment posts

A judge in the ongoing lawsuit between Activision, Electronic Arts and the former co-founders of Call of Duty creators Infinity Ward has ruled that it can move forward to its next phase. Bloomberg reports that EA tried to get the lawsuit dismissed but California Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle thought otherwise, and only dismissed one of the counts and said that there was enough evidence on Activision's side to continue the case.

Just a recap (deep breath): Activision fired Jason West and Vince Zampella about a year ago from their posts at Infinity Ward, accusing the duo of "breaches of contract and insubordination". West and Zampella then filed a lawsuit against Activision, claiming the publisher didn't want to pay the large bonuses that they would claim from sales of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Other former and current Infinity Ward team members filed their own lawsuit for similar reasons. In December Activision dragged EA into the lawsuit, claiming EA worked with West and Zampella "to derail Activision's Call of Duty franchise." Previous to that West and Zampella formed Respawn Entertainment and secured a publishing deal with EA (exhale).

Last year, the buzz was all about Jason West and Vincent Zampella being fired by Activision from the development team the duo helped to create, Infinity Ward. The two people and many other folks who created the Call of Duty shooter franchise launched a new team, Respawn Entertainment, and signed a publishing deal with Electronic Arts soon afterward.

But in a new Wired.com article, THQ exec Danny Bilson says, "We were one deal point away from signing [Respawn]." Zampella also confirmed that the team had serious talks with the publisher. What happened? Respawn wanted to own the rights to the game they would make and that's something that THQ was not willing to give up. Bilson said that agreeing to such a deal would let other developers ask for a similar deal, saying, "My responsibility to our stockholders and to my CEO and the company is to build an IP library." EA's deal with Respawn gave them those ownership rights just as Bungie's recent publishing deal with Activision also gave the game IP rights to Bungie.

The legal sparring between Activision Blizzard and the two founders of game developer Respawn Entertainment continue, according to a new report on Kotaku. The story states that in new legal documents the two former founders of Infinity Ward, Jason West and Vince Zampella, claim that they are "paying for this litigation from our own funds".

In December Activision Blizzard dragged fellow publisher Electronic Arts into its legal fight with West and Zampella. However West and Zampella now claim that the decision to bring EA into the mix was an attempt by Activision Blizzard to delay the start of the actual trial which at the moment is supposed to happen this May. The duo claim that " ... any delay of the trial in this lawsuit would increase the financial and non-financial burdens and would continue to distract us from running our business and earning a living."

Respawn was formed in April 2010 by West and Zampella after having been fired by Activision Blizzard as the co-founders and leaders of the Call Of Duty game development studio Infinity Ward last March. At the time Activision Blizzard accused the duo of "breaches of contract and insubordination" while West and Zampella stated that the publisher didn't want to pay the large bonuses that they would claim from sales of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. Respawn is currently working on an unannounced game that will be published by EA.

The legal fight with publisher Activision and the fired co-founders of developer Infinity Ward has taken a new turn. According to new court documents posted by our sister site Joystiq, Activision has amended its own countersuit to include rival publisher Electronic Arts into its legal fight as a cross-defendant. Activision claims that EA "conspired" with Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella " to derail Activision's Call of Duty franchise, disrupt its Infinity Ward development studio, and inflict serious harm on the company."

In short, Activision claims that West and Zampella had secret meetings with EA CEO John Riccitiello as early as August 2009. It also claims that West and Zampella decided to "covertly copy certain materials". Activision is asking in the countersuit for $400 million in damages from EA, West and Zampella. After Activision fired the due from Infinity Ward in March, West and Zampella formed Respawn Entertainment and did get a publishing deal from EA. While they have yet to respond to this new countersuit, West and Zampella have claimed in the past Activision fired them rather than give the duo a large royalty check from the sales of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Update: The Los Angeles Times has posted EA's official response, saying, "This is a PR play filled with pettiness and deliberate misdirection."

2010 was a year that served as a bit of a comeback for the PC game industry. We saw the digital download market for games, which already had gained traction in the last couple of year, really explode in the last 12 months. We saw the rise of free-to-play online games in a variety of genres as it gained a large foothold in the Western markets. Indie game development continued to expand as small game teams and studios bypassed the big publishers and found success in directly selling games to consumers.

Yet not everything was wine and roses in the last 12 months. Games that were supposed to become big hits had launch issues that, in one major case, caused the game's developer to close its doors. Piracy continues to be a major PC game issue but some publishers used DRM set-ups that are seen by many as too harsh for the average consumer. In many cases developers who made multi-platform games treated the PC port like an unwanted step-child, denying that version post-DLC support, releasing the PC version months after the console ports and more.

However the truth is that overall PC gaming got a second look from many in the overall game industry. While console game sales are on the whole down for the year, a case could be made that the PC side of the business is actually gaining strength. So what were the big news stories for the PC game industry in 2010? Big Download has gone back and picked 10 stories over the past 12 months that we think rose above the normal press release noise and were significant in 2010. Check out our picks after the jump:

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is known for giving out opinions and quotes that can ruffle some feathers and hurt some feelings. In a new interview for Edge magazine, Kotick is at it again. In an portion of the interview on the Edge web site. Kotick slams the way Electronic Arts handles its internal developers, saying, "EA will buy a developer and then it will become 'EA Florida', 'EA Vancouver', 'EA New Jersey', whatever. We always looked and said, 'You know what? What we like about a developer is that they have a culture, they have an independent vision and that's what makes them so successful.'" To be fair to EA, they have in fact been renaming developers so they have unique designations (Visceral Games, Danger Close, etc).

Eurogamer has reported on other excerpts from the Kotick interview where he slams Tim Schafer's Double Fine studio. Activision once held the rights to publish the console-only game Brutal Legend and in his one meeting about the the game he was told by his execs, "He's late, he's missed every milestone, he's overspent the budget and it doesn't seem like a good game. We're going to cancel it." He also slams the founders of Infinity Ward, Vince Zampella and Jason West, once again. The creators of the Call of Duty franchise were fired back in March. Kotick claims, "We're a public company, we've got ethics obligations, and the things they did were... I would go to jail if I did them."

It's been a few months since the co-founders of Infinity Ward were basically kicked out by Activision. While the two parties are now fighting it out in court, the co-founders and a number of other Infinity Ward team members have gone ahead and formed Respawn Entertainment.

While the team has yet to reveal what kind of game will be made, we at least know that whatever it is the game will be heading to PC hard drives. A jobs listing for the company on Gamasutra confirms, "Respawn intends to develop a multi-platform product that works on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC." With many other PC developers abandoning the plaftorm it's at least good to know that the Call of Duty creators are going to stick with the delivery system that helped to make them be a huge success.

QuakeCon 2010's events are starting to shape up nicely. The upcoming free LAN event/consumer game show will not only have pro and amateur Quake Live tournaments during the Dallas-based event on August 12-15 but a number of panels and special presentations.

On Thursday, August 12, id Software's John Carmack will conduct his annual QuakeCon keynote address where he will talk about pretty much anything on his mind and also take questions from the assembled crowd. Later Carmack will join Richard Garriott to discuss their mutual experiences with rockets (Carmack is the founder of private rocket company Armadillo Aerospace and Garriott has, well, been in space).

Other panels at the show will feature quite a number of big game developers speaking on various topics. Those will include members of Respawn Entertainment in perhaps their first public speaking appearance since the former Infinity Ward team members formed their new studio earlier this year. There are also some special live gameplay presentations for the upcoming games Brink and Rage planned and we are betting there will be some unannounced surprises. You can check out the full panel schedule after the jump:

Publisher THQ suffered through a lot of cut backs in team members, studios and games in 2008 and part of 2009 but it seems like the publisher is fighting back with a host of major new titles in the works. But that may just be the tip of the iceberg. In a new chat with IndustryGamers, THQ VP Danny Bilson states they plan to make "two more sort of jaw-dropping talent" announcements in the next couple of months.

In fact Bilson reveals the company talked with Jason West and Vince Zampella after their departure from Infinity Ward. While the duo behind the Call of Duty franchise signed with EA as Respawn Entertainment, Bilson states, "the guys that we're going to announce, are of that caliber coming our way." One big difference, however is that THQ will own the IP that the game's creators will make, unlike Respawn which will own their game IP and Bungie which will own its new game IP with Activision publishing. Bilson states, "That is fantastic for them if they can get away with it. They can't come here with that. And I don't need them if that's the deal, and they're not a business I want to be in."

Here's something we are going to start doing right now. We are no longer trusting Facebook page announcements unless we know they are truly official sources. We and other sites may have been played by a Facebook account that had been online for a number of weeks that supposedly is from Jason West and Vince Zampella, the founders of Respawn Entertainment. That account posted a message saying they were prepping for a big E3 2010 announcement next week.

Now 1Up.com is posting word that the Facebook account is not that of West or Zampella (ironically using unnamed but "extremely reliable" sources). Does that mean there won't be a Respawn announcement at E3? 1Up.com seems to believe that but doesn't completely shut the door on the possibility. One thing about E3 2010 is for certain; there will always be unexpected and out-of-left-field announcements.