EA has no option to buy Respawn

By Tom Bramwell Published 12 April, 2010

West/Zampella talk up game prospects.

Electronic Arts may have signed a multi-game deal with Respawn Entertainment, the company set up by former Infinity Ward bosses Vince Zampella and Jason West, but the publisher does not have an option to buy the independent studio.

"Really we're not talking about deal terms, but specifically on that point the answer is no," EA Partners' David DeMartini said while Eurogamer interviewed Zampella and West tonight.

"We're a very independent company and this is a publishing deal with our premiere game and we're really excited to be partnering with EA," Zampella added.

Zampella and West also told Eurogamer that they hope their company's first game will be a "big summer blockbuster", but declined to draw comparisons with their previous output.

"It's premature right now. We're focused on getting the team. We know we want it to be a big summer blockbuster, we want it to be something our fans will really enjoy, but there's nothing specific yet," said West.

"We hope that it will be a fresh and new experience that will surprise people, but we're not going to make Boom Blox or something, it's going to be a big huge game."

Inevitably, neither executive was able to say much about the fallout with Activision, which has played out in public following the release of numerous statements and court documents. Asked what they thought about Activision calling them "insubordinate and self-serving schemers", Zampella said: "It sucks. Horribly."

"We think it's false and outrageous," said West, echoing the words of his attorney on Friday, "and we're glad we're able to now move on and focus on the future."

We also asked if it made the pair sick of games. "I wouldn't say that," said West. "It was pretty traumatic, and that first week was rough, but like Vince said, it was great to get all the interest from all the publishers and the gaming community, and I think that renewed my spirits at least."

EA Partners is clearly pleased as punch with its new hires, too, with David DeMartini happy to talk up their prospects in the absence of specifics.

"I think the analogy that we could use is that we've got Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo starting to play for a brand new football club and you're wondering how many championships we're going to win," he said.

"Well, the odds are with those two superstars we're going to have a pretty good team, but we need to fill out the rest of the line-up and then we need to move forward. I think that's where the guys find themselves today."

Check out the full Eurogamer interview with Jason West, Vince Zampella and David DeMartini elsewhere on the site.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Alivada #1 2 years ago

    It's just today is the day where the story has basically concluded, it'll stop tommorow.
    Or soon anyway, but hell I'm interested in this sort of news rather than the usual reviews.
    Edited by 1 at 12/04/10 @ 20:57

  • Spekingur #2 2 years ago

    Wow. When there are actual news, people complain. When there are "none", people complain as well. Make up your damn mind.

  • webcider #3 2 years ago

    i read every news about this :D its funny un a unfunny way...

  • Slipstream #4 2 years ago

    This news is of mass interest to the industry as awhole, not just Eurogamer Sharx. No one forced you read this, in fact you're on the internet mate, it's chock full of other news, christ.

  • hiddenranbir #5 2 years ago

    Yay for a football analogy! They know us!

  • Eraysor #6 2 years ago

    But what about Lionel Messi?

  • smelly #7 2 years ago

    "We hope that it will be a fresh and new experience"

    .. so it's a fps - but this time, with better graphics! Or maybe a new gun.

  • laharl80 #8 2 years ago

    A lionel messi analogy would only be in order if EA had signed a deal with hideo kojima or someone else who had made visionary ground breaking titles.Not two dudes who make overrated shooters.I couldn't be less interested in what these two produce in the future.
    Given that EA has already overhauled medal of honor i can't see what they will gain from signing a publishing deal with these two.
    I bet they only did it to annoy activision.

  • darkmorgado #9 2 years ago

    Unless Activision do something truly stupid like rule IW's remnants with an iron fist and demotivate the remaining IW staff even further, I can't see the IW Call Of Duty games sufferring all that much.

    Which is why people have been leaving IW like rats on a sinking ship, and Bobby Kotick went on record over a year ago saying he likes to foster a culture of fear in his employees? Or perhaps because Acti have restructured to exlusively deal with milking sequels and franchises? Or that Boby Kotick has said he wants to take alll the fun out of making videogames? Or that they arrogantly increased the RRP of MW2? Or that they are charging an extortionate tenner for 5 maps, 2 of which are rehashes from a previous game? Or that Kotick sacked the heads of a dev who were having convos with other publishers because their exclusivity contract was nearly up? Or because Kotick refused to pay royalties to the devs that landed them the biggest selling game of all time? I could go on...

  • darkmorgado #10 2 years ago

    PS will the cunt with the spam about Omega watches kindly FUCK OFF.

  • Shikasama #11 2 years ago

    Just in case anyone was wondering, I don't have an option to buy Respawn either

  • spiritsnake #12 2 years ago

    it looks more like a move from EA to piss Acti. And in the process maybe make a quick profit,assuming the gaming public is backing these 2 clowns and will buy whatever they make. i can see the trailers for their new game, "from the makers of high acclaimed COD4 and modern warfare 2,comes an action packed FPS set in the 2nd world war alternate universe,where you're controlling Hitler and you're tasked with saving the world from the tyranny of Dr.frankestein" or sumthn like that.

  • spiritsnake #13 2 years ago

    oh and when you complete the game,it will show why hitler turned bad,coz he was deceived by his commanders,betrayed by the woman he loved,and before the boss fight encounter with Dr.frankestein he learns the secret of making nazi zombies from him,and after the game, goes on to use that info.to make his army. kinda like how Big Boss turned and outer haven and zanzibar land and all that.

    ah cmon,neg just for a fantasy game idea,nuthn to do with reality.do sum people read the whole comment or just the first few words and then hit NEG????
    Edited by 1 at 13/04/10 @ 08:07

  • laharl80 #14 2 years ago

    @darkmorgado
    you mean you don't want to buy an apple/omega 4G wireless iwatch?

  • CordableTuna #15 2 years ago

    As far as fun is concerned Boom Blox is a big huge game.

  • des #16 2 years ago

    "Which is why people have been leaving IW like rats on a sinking ship, and Bobby Kotick went on record over a year ago saying he likes to foster a culture of fear in his employees? "

    And other rats will fill their places...nothing changes

  • schnide #17 2 years ago

    Have a substantial amount of comments been culled from this thread or am I going slightly mad?

  • Nuada #18 2 years ago

    The football analogy is very apt. I couldn't give a flying fuck about either.

  • sneetch #19 2 years ago

    @des
    "Which is why people have been leaving IW like rats on a sinking ship, and Bobby Kotick went on record over a year ago saying he likes to foster a culture of fear in his employees? "

    And other rats will fill their places...nothing changes

    For now maybe, but the culture changed in EA because their reputation was hurting their business. I think it'll happen in Activision sooner or later too. With all that's happening in IW I can't imagine many companies being eager to sign with Activision now; I mean, if you were in charge of a studio and looking for a publisher would you be eager to negotiate with them, knowing how they operate?

  • Acrid #20 2 years ago

    Please don't make them work on MoH we don't need it to turn out like that MW2 shit