The count continues. Former Infinity Ward lead software engineer Francesco Gigliotti updated his Linkedin profile overnight to reflect his newfound employment at Respawn Entertainment.
Gigliotti joins seven others who have publicly declared joining up with former Infinity Ward leadership Vince Zampella and Jason West at their new startup, Respawn. All eight used to work at Infinity Ward alongside West and Zampella and retained their jobs titles at Respawn.
Here's the list of ex-Infinity Ward employees who have announced jobs at Respawn:
- Lead software engineer Francesco Gigliotti
- Lead animator Mark Grigsby
- Lead environmental artist Chris Cherubini
- Lead animator John Paul Messerly
- Software engineer Rayme C. Vinson
- Lead designer Mackey McCandlish
- Lead designer Todd Alderman
- Programmer Jon Shiring
Respawn was announced earlier this month, alongside a partnership with Electronic Arts. EA will fund the development of Respawn's unannounced new project, but Respawn will maintain control of the intellectual property itself. West and Zampella told G4 that was a requirement for their next project, after their issues with Activision and Call of Duty. The duo are currently caught in a lawsuit over it.
Several employees said their first day working at Respawn will be May 1, which is a Saturday.
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Displaying 1–13 of 13
g4fan247
I can't wait to see what new game will come from Respawn.
merivigian
It seems as if IW lost everybody's respect.
JAECE
I guess irony can be pretty ironic.
ElNene64
Honestly, I'm a little worried about all of this. If Activision does keep the "Modern Warfare" ip, that means the story wont be as good as the first two. Am I the only one worried about the quality of the story?
redsoxfan67
Lets get Treyarch to leave as well.
Reaper24683
Ha ha ha. How ironic.
ZyloWolfBane
I like the fact that they got away from activision which held too much control over something they know NOTHING about, its common knowledge how Kotick feels about video games, this man has no business trying to tell his developers how to make games, as a clueless CEO he should stick to his job description: Sit on ass,give money,let devs make games,profit.
On the same token I dont really think the jump to EA was a great idea, they can be just as bad as activision except they are more known for doing a piss poor job with their QA on their titles.
But as long as Respawn maintains control over their IPs its a pretty safe bet that it'll be something really great and unique since they dont have someone else grubby fingers screwing everything up behind the scenes.
DreamingDarklyRobin
I know I'm gonna get thumbed down for this, but wouldn't it be hilariously ironic if Respawn made a new popular shooter and then EA started milking it?
Aerindel_Prime
Awesome, every time I check the list is longer.
Ian528
The fact that all these people jumped ship to work with their old bosses tells you something. They are being loyal to those who deserve their loyalty. Not surprising that all these people jump ship if West and Zampanella are good bosses. I do wonder if they are going to pay more then IW did? or if it is going to be a similar compensation structure.
bunnyglomp
Wow. What a turn around for activision.
Last year, the merger between activision and Vivendi was feared because it would dethrone EA as market leader and become a powerhouse that was unstoppable.
Now look at them. They lost IW, may even lose the MW title, tony hawks series is dead, They havnt had a good spiderman game in yars, they lost ID software. All they have left is poor ol blizzard.
Talk about epic failure
JoshVanDanger
Respawn will be better than Infinity Ward because they are Infinity Ward. Whoever is left at IW has got the advantage of having that name on their game boxes, but Respawn is gonna have the talent. My best wishes to Respawn; I can't wait to see what awesome game they come up with.
RandyMercer
Who didn't see this coming? Respawn is the new hopefully better IW
Displaying 1–13 of 13