Respawn Entertainment, the new studio started by former Infinity Ward bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella, has yet to come up with a solid game plan for a new title. According to EA Partners head David DeMartini, the duo haven’t decided on their first game, as they are currently busy getting the studio up and running.
"The thing everybody needs to remember is they were starting at absolute zero," DeMartini said to Eurogamer during GamesCom. "This is two guys who really know what they're doing having to go find a place for the team, buy chairs and desks and furniture, find new technology from the ground up, and pull a team together. I need to get HR people and contracts. There are all kinds of things and administration that need to take place."
The time delay is so great, that even Insomniac Games will more than likely see their game published by EA before Respawn even have a chance to announce their own project. "Amongst all that administration they've pulled together the core of a fantastic team and they're starting to work on a whole bunch of ideas to try and find what is going to be the one right idea for us," DeMartini said. "It's like the Pope coming from the group of cardinals. You just wait for the smoke to come up and they share with you."
DeMartini also insists that EA hiring West and Zampella was not due to publisher rivalry. “The Activision part, we win some, they win some. It goes back and forth. I don't see it as some big competition," he explained. "Sure, I want EA to be the most successful, but I don't want Activision to fail.
"It's like going to a bad movie," he continued. "Sometimes movies are so bad you don't go to any movies for a while because you're burned by whoever made that last movie. I don't want consumers spending money and playing bad games. I want them to play good games."
