When Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello said late last year that he wanted to take back the first-person shooter crown from Activision's "Call of Duty" games, few onlookers could have predicted that we would find ourselves looking at former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella sitting atop their new Respawn Entertainment studio today holding an exclusive agreement with EA. Now, the context and words have become significantly more heated in the public dialog, as Activision expressed no surprise upon hearing the Respawn news and EA called the "Call of Duty 7" developers at Treyarch a "B-team."
"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," an official statement today from Activision read, according to MCV. "We look forward to continuing to work with Infinity Ward’s deep bench of proven talent on exciting new projects."
Activision's pending lawsuit against West and Zampella, of course, accused the pair of plotting to set up shop elsewhere before they were dismissed at Infinity Ward.
Activision chose to praise the remaining talent at Infinity Ward today, keeping its focus in-house. However, EA's critical assessment of creative bench at Treyarch, where the next non-"Modern Warfare" title will be completed, showed a few more teeth.
"The media has identified the non-Infinity Ward years as the B-team years, and just kind of picking that up from the media and looking at the review scores, they tend to drop down anywhere from 7-10 points in a non-Infinity Ward year," EA Partners head David DeMartini told VG247.
DeMartini's remarks reportedly came last week before the Respawn news was official, but we may hear worse before things settle down in court. It's also going to be interesting to see if any other current or former Infinity Ward employees get head-hunted by their ex-bosses as the studio assembles its creative roster.
Do you think DeMartini stepped over the line with his remarks about Treyarch? How do you think "Call of Duty 7" will turn out? Share your opinions in the comment section below.