Fired 'Call of Duty' developers sue Activision for more than $36 million

[wingFeather]

I used to know a guy who worked there. He said it was the worst workplace he'd ever been in.

[Hijacker]

I have a feeling West and Zampella are in for a rude awakening: EA is just as horrible as Activision, and is going to milk anything they create under contract with them in just as many ways.

Why not start your own studio WITHOUT ties to a major Evil Corporation? What on earth are they looking for that they can only find at EA? TONS of new developers have formed from the splinters of older, bigger ones without needing to turn to EA or Activision.Of course, when you're trying to make console games, you have to make certain concessions. The nature of the console market is much more controlled. On the PC side of things, it's much easier to self-publish or at least retain more control through Steam or Impulse. With consoles the need for a big publisher is greater.But even considering that, there are so many better options than EA, even if you're NOT fresh out of a broken partnership with the closest thing to EA that can be found.

I really don't see this going well at all. EA rarely does good things with purchased IPs and when they do the good things only last long enough to re-secure the IP's market value under the new label before being shoved in the Game-O-Matic for maximum profit. MW3 might be great, but MW4 will likely end up being more generic than cheddar cheese.

At any rate, I have no interest in COD or MW, so unless Respawn plans on doing something different, none of this means much to me. I wish they'd...you know...get adventurous and make something that's NOT a multiplayer-focused war shooter. How many MW games do we need before the setting becomes just as tiresome as the WWII era? How many different ways can you spin it? Where's the creativity?

Meh, whatever.

West and Zampella used to work under EA for the Medal of Honor series before they left 2015 and went to IW. So I think it's safe to assume that they know what they're getting into as far as contracts go with EA. But, they entered into the EA Partners program, which from what I've gathered gives them greater creative freedom and more secure ownership of their IP. EA has changed a lot over the past few years and gave up the thrown for ultimate evil corporation, however, old habits do die hard. What I imagine EA will do with Respawn is what they do with DICE. They will let them develop whatever they want, and give them full license to play, then simply sit back and rake in the publisher's take of the sales. The one smart thing Activision does is let Blizzard do it's thing, and it makes them a silly mountain range of money.

Given West and Zampella's track record, you can guarantee that they will produce yet another online FPS out of the new studio. That's all they've ever done, so I doubt they will deviate from that course.

I hope the best for them, I really do. But I'm reminded of "Won't Be Fooled Again" by The Who; "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss."