Respawn Entertainment co-founder Jason West has left the company, sources close to the studio have informed me. Co-founder Vince Zampella is now the acting head of the studio.

The duo are best known for having created the Call of Duty series under Activision.

I’m told West has not been involved in active development for Respawn’s game for a number of months now, but it has not impacted development.

The company did not respond to my request for comment.

West founded Respawn after leaving Infinity Ward, a studio he also co-founded, in a contentious and public exodus during 2010 that resulted in a lengthy lawsuit with publisher Activision. Dozens of employees left at the same time, and many of them went with West to Respawn.

Respawn has been developing a first-person-shooter for Electronic Arts. The game has not yet been unveiled, but it is reported to have a sci-fi slant, and is expected to be unveiled at E3 this year.

Not a good sign.

Did not expect that.

SCOOPS!

This seems like a bad thing to happen before your first game is even announced.

Twist! Always love a good one.

Dude, what the hell is going on with this studio? I just wanna know what they're working on.

Uhhh..wha? Why?

Soon Vince Zampella will split into two beings, one half of him will leave Respawn while the other stays.

What the hell is Respawn up to? That's what I've been curious about for a while. This only adds to that.

Intriguing...

Didn't Vince Zampella state on twitter though that Respawn was gonna be at E3? Maybe West just realised he's got a metric ton of money and he doesn't want to spend 4+ years making yet another shooter?

Nothing apparently.

Looks like West is... going out west.

Hahahahahahaha

Re-respawn Entertainment

Aren't West and Zampella still in litigation with Activision? Also, what the heck have they been doing for the last year? Maybe we'll find out a E3. Maybe?

Edit: Never mind. Found that the suit was settled.

"West, who left because of family issues,has been gone since last May, according to one reliable source who asked not to be named."

This isn't a sign for anything.

Plus, Polygon's reporting that he's retired.

Oh... dear god please say he starts his own studio and this entire process starts anew.

Please.

Please please.

Then someone make a movie out of this whole thing.

Yeah, there you go. It's a non-story at this point.

At this rate he'll found a company and leave it after a week.

holy crap

huh, that's surprising.

Whoa, that's something I didn't see coming.

Scoops got scooped by Kotaku. Must have a faster typist.

Man, that sucks.

I dunno man I'm not caring at all about any of this. Wasn't the game they were working on some sort of Command and Conquer Generals thing? I thought that was a thing that they were working on?

Hope he deals with his family issues as best as he can.

This seems like an important piece of information to leave out, Patrick!

I am dissapoint.

somebody must've picked the Hardcore company and not the respawning one

....yeah that was bad

He needs to put Insubordinate Games to good use.

Don't really mean nothing, he's been gone since May and did not even work on the new game from Respawn. He got a boat load of money from the settlement and will probably be living off investments the rest of his life lol.

I didn't have that information from my sources. Can't report what I don't know.

lawlllll

"I’m told West has not been involved in active development for Respawn’s game for a number of months now, but it has not impacted development."

I think you meant "and"

Ten months ago? Jeez, this would explain some of Respawn's activity, or lack of it. It'll be interesting to see what gets put out there at E3.

I am capable of spelling disappoint like a human being rather than a meme generator.

I am also surprised by this news, but given the apparent circumstances, it's understandable. Still, kind of odd to hear given all of the drama surrounding his departure from Infinity Ward, founding Respawn, and going this long without unveiling Respawn's game.

Hope it doesn't impact the quality of [Insert generic si-fi shooter title here]. Was really looking forward to that one.

@baltimore: They settled with Activision last year, and yeah they pretty much "won".

Dude has a lot of money and family issues are both very good excuses for this to happen. I don't see it as a big deal, although I wasn't ever anything more than curious as to what they were working on. I have no faith that it will "revolutionize" the industry like Modern Warfare did, too much hype.

Wow that's a shock. Wonder what respawn will show at E3

That is pretty weird.

That's BioWare Victory. Respawn's game hasn't been announced.

crazy!

I want to see this game. I'm sure it'll be interesting to see how good or bad it is...

Hmmm...I'm interested in hearing the rest of the story. Maybe tomorrow we'll get some more info?

This got me looking into Robert Bowling because I thought this was him that left, but it turns out I was confused. Anyways, as I was saying, I checked in on Robotoki, and their site says they are going to announce something tomorrow. I doubt any of this is related, but seeing as they worked for the same company maybe it's not too far fetched?

EDIT: Actually it's not their site, it's FourZeroTwo's (Robert Bowling's) tumblr.

http://fourzerotwo.com/

Patrick 'Scoops' Klepek living up to his name.

Man, that's kind of out of left field.

Everything Respawn has done has been done in utter secrecy so I'm not surprised we hadn't heard about this until now. Not that the news of West's exit from the company is an unsurprising move.

Isn't it just Victory studios now or something? I feel like EA reverted them after ME3.

This is odd. Normally West releases a game a game before he flips everyone off on his way out the doors of EA/Activision and heads towards his new offices in Activision/EA.

EDIT: I now see from these comments that he left because of family issues. Whatever they may be, I hope things work out for him. With that said, the link FluxWaveZ is pretty funny.

In recent years, West and Zampella were tangled up in a massive lawsuit involving Activision, EA, and possible subterfuge.

LOL. "Possible subterfuge." That's an understatement. That's like saying during the cold war the US and Soviets were just keeping tabs on each other.

If people didn't mention about the familial troubles, I would've thought that West was being silly for leaving Activision, going to court, making a new studio and suddenly just walked away from it all.

Step 1: Get huge settlement from Activision

Step 2: Buy a Golden Parachute

Step 3: Jump