Despite what the Internet might have told you, EA Partners has no idea what Respawn Entertainment's next game will be. The new studio's bosses, Jason West and Vince Zampella, don't know either. They're still picking out couches, presumably throwing around ideas, and otherwise building a studio from the ground up. In other words, it'll take some time before we see their first game since Modern Warfare 2.
But that doesn't mean EA Partners isn't amped about the studio's first game, regardless of what it'll be. "It's like the Pope coming from the group of cardinals," EA Partners boss David DeMartini told Eurogamer in Cologne. "We're sitting there waiting for the smoke to come up and when it does, we'll call you." DeMartini's reverence for the two is, of course, founded in the belief that they can ship another success as enormous as Modern Warfare 2, their last game at Infinity Ward.
"These are 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 HR people and contracts. These are all kinds of things and administration that need to take place."
"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'll be tough for Respawn to start work on its next game before it gets an engine, a full team, and desk chairs, in place, but there's a lot of enthusiasm surrounding these two guys, and an obvious hope that they can bring another product to market that will capture the masses' attention. Do you share that sentiment?