John-ShepardBy now, everyone should be quite familiar with the Activision/Infinity Ward fiasco and the resulting start-up studio, Respawn Entertainment.
Ex-IW bosses Vince Zampella and Jason West are at the head of Respawn ('wink') and since they opened their doors, they inked a big publishing deal with Activision's rival, EA, and also managed to snag more than a few Infinity Ward members. In fact, IW has lost around 35 employees since everything went down, although Activision still says the studio "remains important." We keep picturing EA giggling in a corner during all of this (remember when they said Activision went and "shot their Triple Crown-winning horse?") and now, they're talking again. This time, EA Partners boss David DeMartini told CVG that he believes Respawn "will achieve great things in the future," and he "fears for the future of the Modern Warfare franchise" following the mass exodus from IW. When asked what might have been different if IW had been part of EA Partners, DeMartini said:
"It's kind of hard to answer that question because Infinity Ward was an internal studio of Activision. It's not like they were an independent studio that was just contracted by Activision, they were an internal studio of Activision. But what I'd say is you haven't seen any internal studios up and leave EA. If Infinity Ward was an internal studio at EA would things have been different? I think yes – but I'm biased.
I don't like to see that go on in our industry at all. That was a hugely successful franchise. I'm sure Vince and Jason didn't want to get fired and now looking at it the whole thing's kind of blown up."
He goes on to say that "a franchise is damaged" and it may "never be the same again." He also says that perhaps everything happens for a reason and now, EA really "couldn't be happier to work with Vince and Jason and the team at Respawn." Yeah, we still sense a little chortle beneath all that diplomacy.
I believe they mean to say, "We expect huge potential profits!"
I don't care if MW is damaged beyond belief (I'm not sure that it wasn't already) I just want to see what Respawn has in store for their first project.
Unfortunately, if I do wind up caring about an integrated multiplayer aspect, buy it cheap won't help much with this new super lame $10 subscription fee to play online. I feel bad for xbots, since that will be on top of paying for LIVE too if they don't buy the game(s) brand new.
amen to that
feel bad for the 360 boys
"EA Expects 'Great Things' From Respawn Entertainment"- Okay now they are really taunting Activision.
Well, these gaming giants will be going head to head with some of the big hitting games in the future… and victory will depend on their studios…
Go for it Respawn!
Q!
"Respawn | Entertainment Reborn"
I'm really hoping EA will allow Respawn to make a quality project that will keep gamers highly satisfied with the final product. I'm sure many will not want to be disappointed with mediocrity, especially from former IW employees whom many consider to be very talented.
No matter how badly activision shot themselves in the nuts, the truth of the matter is that MW3 will still sell like cocain, no matter who makes it.
the sad truth.
I reckon MW3 will sell like hotcakes at first just because of the name alone.
Then people will realise it's pretty crap and just a rehash of MW2, and MW1.
Then the trades will come flowing in and the game will be worth $2 on ebay within a year of release.
rehash?! lol come on its a sequal i mean take uncharted 2 how different is it really from the first
godslim never compare uncharted to MW again
u know im right tho
Man Ea needs to man up and stop all the diplomacy crap. You know what they all really want to say it, "Haha activision sucks, we win, we win!" So stop beating around the bush and just say it already. 😉
Yes MW3 will sell like mad because half of the people that buy it doesn't even know about the IW situation and that half the team has left.
They couldn't care less… They just assume that MW3 will be great because everyone else says so…
y should they care about IWs situation tho?! that wont stop me buying mw3 tbh all u guys not buying games just because its by a certain developer and publisher is stupid
No it is not, what is stupid is supporting a company that wants to take the industry somewhere where all that matters is profits, no matter what the cost.
By supporting the games you validate their tactics which will make other publishers take note and follow suite. People like you are effectively saying that is is O.K to raise the price of games, take the creativity and fun out of the development process and welcome paying for more and more DLC that should have been included with the game.
It is no coincidence that all Activision seems to release these days is endless squeals and titles with peripheral gimmicks to raise profits even more. They have no new IP's and some that they did they scrapped as they did not want to take the risk, such as Brutal Legend which was luckily picked up by another publisher and went on to be a great success.
Ok Imagi, I'd agree with you if every last gamer on earth was an adult that read gaming news. Saying we "validate their tactics" is nonsense when you consider the target market is youth. Are you honestly going to blame young adults for supporting "evil empires" by buying a game from Activision? They don't care. They just want a game to play.
would you not expect that?
i mean when a developer releases a game and within 6 months becomes THE BEST SELLING GAME OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!! than you cant blame them for having high expectations.
Lets hope EA's QA is better than Activision's.
How much different was Uncharted from the 1st you ask? Perhaps the major difference was the Game of the Year quality, or the MP, or another epic story, with different guns new mechanics and a lot of different locations to explore.
Buying MW3 just because of the name is pretty ignorant. From the shooters I am looking for originality and at least some sort of creativeness these days, not just Military Shooters that are common place these days. Oh and by the way, MW2 is NOT the best selling game of all time, it won the Most Overrated game of all Time. And with all of this praise isn't it funny no one nominated it for GOTY?
I like that he said he was biased. That's good pr in my books. Made me laugh and kinda says "what do you expect me to say?"
As for Respawn, well, it's not just EA that is expecting big things. They have the know how to make millions of gamers very happy.
I honestly do not care what company made my game as long as it is fun to play. It could be a completely unknown company.
I have been getting rather sick of the Call Of Duty franchise, but have continued to buy it all of these years because I know I will have fun temporarily.
I will personally be buying Modern Warfare 3, just so I can continue the epic story-line.
I understand that it may not be the story originally intended by the visionaries at Infinity Ward, but I believe I can survive with this knowledge, as I do not know the original story-line to complain either way. Who knows, the new story-line being developed may actually be better scripted than the original. We will never know this, so cannot accurately complain.
As said before about estimated sales, I agree with most people.
I too believe that MW3 will sell incredibly well due to the continuation of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series, as well as simply having the now-famous "Modern Warfare" text on the front of the cover.
Some people in the comment section also believe that MW3 will sell terribly and have a price reduction by the end of one year of sales.
This is just a guess, and cannot be proven until the product is released.
*Don't judge a book by its' cover* can be used to prove my point, as even if a book looks terribly on the front, or its' pages are torn, the content within may be well worth a read.
My point is, don't judge a game that has not yet been released.
Also, as a final note, I'd like to wish everyone at both Infinity Ward and Respawn Entertainment great success with their future products.