440°

More Infinity Ward staffers leave, join Respawn

Joystiq: The siphon that delivers Infinity Ward expatriates to Vince Zampella and Jason West's new company Respawn Entertainment appears to have been primed. Two more have joined the new studio: senior software engineer Chris Lambert and designer Brent McLeod are new hires at the new EA Partners-funded studio, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

In addition to those two, three more have left Infinity Ward.

NateNater5111d ago

This situation is similar to what happened with Tecmo/Team Ninja. Itagaki was owed royalties from Dead or Alive 4 from Tecmo. Tecmo didn't want to pay him. So, Itagaki left and took lots of his crew with him and they started their own company, Valhalla Game Studios.

History repeats itself my friends. Note to game companies: Pay your developers what they deserve.

Respawn is the new Infinity Ward.

TheColbertinator5110d ago

I also blame Activision for threatening their development freedom similar to how EA ruined Westwood,Origin and Pandemic,three of the most promising developers the industry ever saw.

Redrum0595110d ago

activision and EA deserve to burn to the ground

Godmars2905110d ago (Edited 5110d ago )

Tecmo had a change of leadership, Itagaki didn't like how things where looking and left, then later sued for back pay after a few of his loyalist also quit. A couple of Yakuza guys were not seen shortly before he was disappeared on orders from a long standing management.

NateNater5110d ago

Ok, so maybe the situation I described isn't really that similar. But you guys get the point. Respawn will basically become the new Infinity Ward. Hopefully we'll see some good games come out of this situation.

Bnet3435110d ago (Edited 5110d ago )

Oh yeah I was going to say the same thing. When Itagaki left Team Ninja and all the good devs from there followed him. lol at Redrum's comment.

Godmars2905110d ago

How do you come to that conclusion when we've yet to see an Itagaki title post Team Ninja?

Come to that, given how bug ridden MW2 was, what says "Infinity Ward" isn't going to do any better under a different name?

AAACE55110d ago

I don't remember alot of people following Itagaki from Tecmo, but I may be wrong!

I still don't like EA that much, but I hate Activision. So i'm glad to see more people leave and that Bobby Kotick dude!

DRUDOG5110d ago

@Colbert, don't forget Bullfrog as well...

Elven65110d ago

Godmars: No, Itagaki was fired from his job by his boss weeks before he was supposed to leave the company, Itagaki then sued Tecmo because they owed him money from Dead or Alive 4 and the CEO was apparently making slanderous remarks about it in front of other Team Ninja staff.

http://kotaku.com/5028117/i...

http://www.1up.com/do/newsS...

Unlike Tecmo, Activision only owed royalties that would have been paid out at the end of the quarter, not ones that they withheld for nearly 3 years!

TreMillz5110d ago

Tim Johnson, the head janitor at Infinity Ward was said to have resigned today. While at IW, Johnson was incharge of sweeping, mopping and leading the other janitors in the field. He confirmed the news on his Twitter page this afternoon. Activision has yet to respond with a comment on another key departure.

On topic: Yea Call of Duty is dying a slow death. 3 games in 2 years? Depseration is a bad thing folks.

Hill_billy5110d ago

EA has since redeemed themselves and is evident in the games they are currently releasing. It truly started with Dead Space and a few others a couple years ago. Activision however will need to see the light before I buy anything from them at this time. Can't wait for the first Respawn game, I am sure it will knock the ball out of the park.

+ Show (8) more repliesLast reply 5110d ago
mrdxpr25110d ago

Soo mostly little by little piece by piece infinity ward is getting back together but with a diferent name and under a new publisher yeah... sucks for activision.

CryWolf5110d ago

Activision is to blame about this Infinity Ward is gone a lot of good staffers are leaving because of activision dummies.

badz1495110d ago

now we'll get an exact clone of CoD but this time developed by respawn and published by EA! just what all the sheep need! /s

jdktech20105110d ago

The question is though of how much MW2 was Activision stepping in and how much was IW own ideas.....it's probably somewhere in the middle

We know the DLC pricing was ALL activision

badz1495110d ago

but making the game was all IW! every single glitch and broken mechanic in MW2 are all IW!

solar5110d ago

sleep with the devil, you are going to be burned. hopefully Valve stays indy. we, as a whole for the gaming industry need indy dev's that are willing to take risks without a big publisher overseeing development.

Show all comments (29)
80°

Telltale shares new images from The Wolf Among Us 2, release 2024

The long-awaited sequel to the 2013 narrative adventure is currently expected out sometime in 2024.

BlackOni2d ago

Oh hell yeah! I feel like this was one hell of an underrated game, and I'm glad to see that a part 2 is coming.

jznrpg2d ago (Edited 2d ago )

This was my favorite Telltale game. I’m definitely going to play this. Hopefully it has less jank than the Telltale games had. I didn’t think it would happen but I’m happy it’s coming

gold_drake2d ago

right? it was sooo good, cant wait for part 2

BlackCountryBob2d ago

Great, loved the first game and happy a sequel is coming but after such a lengthy development, are Telltale gonna be releasing it episodic with non specific time delays between episodes? If it is episodic, they need to have a full set of dates laid out for every episode so we know what we are getting & when like Resident Evil Revelations 2 did, buying episode 1 and not knowing when the rest will come is just unacceptable in 2024.

CobraKai2d ago

I always loved Telltale games. They were like those old choose your own adventures books.

290°

Gamers seek legal win that would stop devs from rendering online games unplayable

The organizer of "Stop Killing Games" hopes to get France and other governments to examine the legality of live service shutdowns. Scott has launched a new website, Stop Killing Games, to rally opposition to the games industry's "assault on both consumer rights and preservation of media," as he puts it.

-Foxtrot16d ago (Edited 16d ago )

Should probably get them to implement offline mode when it comes to games you can play single player

It's shitty playing something solo and having to be connect despite being offline within the game.

It's worse when you get the games which can't be paused, I remember the doorbell going during a huge fight in Monster Hunter World, it took me ages but realised you couldn't pause. I ended up getting slaughtered after spending so long almost killing it.

Yi-Long15d ago

Driveclub is one of my favourite games of all-time, but once Sony killed it, it's barely playable in offline; Leaderboards are obviously gone so one of the things I liked to do most in the game, Time-attack, is now pretty pointless, and every race you start there's a red text on thr screen telling you you're offline.

There honestky was no need to keep the offline so integrated with the online stuff, and it's made me wary of other games which are now 'always online'.

purple10116d ago

should do what gran truismo on ps54 did, after severs shut, they unlock everything in the campaign to be played offline

there's no need for anti-cheat 'always online' which was always their excuse, thats and updating gamer progression

neutralgamer199215d ago

I didn’t know that. That’s awesome

Jingsing15d ago

and put out a physical version at the end, it is extra money for them at the end of the day.

blacktiger15d ago

Ppl get confused about this lawsuit, this guy has a point, if you don't want to pay for server cause no one is playing that's fine, at least make it PVP, that isn't hard and people paid for the game. So there for it shouldn't be unplayable. Offline is not what he's fighting for but that would be single player. He just fighting for PVP as to dedicated if you going to take it down.

I agree with this one! I hope he wins!

SimpleSlave15d ago

"Offline is not what he's fighting for but that would be single player. "

Always Online does include fully fledged Single Player Campaigns as well. And that's why I think The Crew is being used; The Precedent that covers it all.

Games like The Division 1 and 2 also have Single Player Campaigns, and Ghost Recon Breakpoint is a fully fledged Single Player game but always Online. Which mean that unless uBeSawft patches them they will all cease to exist once uBeSawft pulls the plug.

Again, I think this is why The Crew is being used as the precedent, because it covers all the Online Only bases; Not just the usual Multiplayer PvE and PvP like an MMO or Shooters and their Servers, but also actual Single Player Campaigns that are sadly always online.

Inverno15d ago

Should pin this to let it be on top for a while. This sort of stuff should get some good amount of attention, could actually make some good change in the industry.

HyperMoused15d ago

SP games yes, MP games, its a question of whos maintaing the servers etc and keeing them online.

blackblades15d ago

PvP games it should work. I remember playing black ops offline with AI opponents but of course its funner with real and AI bots. I know some games are server base but I imagine if hard work put in to it that, it can work offline.

PRIMORDUS15d ago

At least on the PC side I say if a company doesn't want to support a game anymore just give it to the fans. They will keep it alive for years and years. Like UT2004 for example you can still play it today, or BF1942. For any SP games I just torrent and keep it forever if they pull the plug. 😊

Show all comments (16)
260°

Square Enix Already "Hard At Work" On Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3

Development on the next game in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy might be further ahead than we thought. In a video discussing the series, the project leads say they are "hard at work" on the finale, right after launching Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

This comment was made by Remake and Rebirth director Tetsuya Nomura, who says that he and the scenario writer Kazushige Nojima are already working on the next game. Better yet, composer Nobuo Uematsu says that he'd be "honoured" to return for the finale, despite previously fearing that he doesn't have the "strength" for another game.

Read Full Story >>
thegamer.com
just_looken22d ago

So i take it they won't be fixing there last game with the visual/movement problems.
https://youtu.be/B2rHUbqauU...

Just keep tossing them out

Barlos21d ago

Nothing worse than a grammar nazi

_Decadent_Descent21d ago

@Barlos

Nothing worse than those that let others keep on making a fool of themselves and say nothing to correct them. That's why they continue to keep making those mistakes.

Pyrofire9520d ago

I appreciate that many more people are agreeing with the grammar correction and disagreeing with Barlos.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 20d ago
garos8221d ago

yikes talk about nit picking and strawmanning

roadkillers21d ago

This is something most crtics bring up... but they still gave the game 9+ score. As big of a deal as you are making it, a VAST majority of players were just fine with the graphics compared to waht they got with Rebirth

DarXyde20d ago

Dude complains about everything.

I haven't finished the game yet, but I'm having a blast.

Just negative for the sake of being negative.

dumahim21d ago

While I'd guess they're probably not going to do much else about it at this point, just because they're working on the sequel doesn't mean they can't have someone working on the visual issues for Rebirth. Likewise, it also doesn't mean they're not working on a DLC for it either.
Either way, I'd put money on it that they'll update the game for PS5 Pro.

Exvalos21d ago

Keep up the hatred fanboy, and we will keep playing great games

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 20d ago
GoodGuy0922d ago

Sweet....and hopefully can actually answer all the wtfs rather than giving us more questions that has been happening in these games lol. And I hope they just end the game properly instead of trying to milk VII even more. I'd very much like to see remakes of other FF titles on the same level.

-Foxtrot21d ago

God I hope this is it for VII

They’ve milked it far too much over the years, I mean Wikipedia has its own VII specific page because there’s so much media for it

It’s time for other FF games to get some love

gold_drake21d ago

im all for it, remake and rebirth were fantastic, especially rebirth, my god wat a brilliant game.

i mean, we had 16 and 14 still be a thing.
and 9 is getting a remake too, apparently

FinalFantasyFanatic21d ago

As much as I love FF7, they have really milked it to death, 2 compilations of FF7 which includes novels, games, mobile games, movies and animation...

They really need to put more effort into newer FF games.

-Foxtrot21d ago

@FinalFantasyFanatic

Yeah I mean look at it man, why does anyone want it milked even more when other FF games are starving for attention.

https://i.ibb.co/3mT2TRc/12...

Furesis21d ago

Well when you have Tetsuya Nomura hands on something, that is what you get. Whether you like it or not that's another thing.
I don't think they should make remakes like this anymore, and they won't that's what they said also. It takes too long and it just fragments the game too much for my taste. And i'd prefer a more 1 to 1 remake with maybe a slightly smaller budget so that it would actually be made in a reasonable time rather than these 10+ year projects.

gold_drake21d ago

nomura doesnt ely that much of a role in the trilogy, its Nojima u need to blame ha.

as for the og, there are mods u can use for that.

we'll never get an updated og game. it would take them years to finish it, even if its 1:1

fr0sty21d ago (Edited 21d ago )

nobody will buy a 1:1 remake, they already know what is going to happen exactly... and you can't properly remake a 20+ year old game 1:1 anyway, so much needs to be done to bring it to modern standards, that you have to change some things.

Michiel198921d ago

@frosty that's the same thing the execs at blizzard said about WoW classic and here we are. You think you do, but you don't

dumahim21d ago

They did a Remaster for Crisis Core, which seemed near impossible due to a licensing issue not too long ago. I wouldn't be surprised if they do the same for Dirge of Cerberus before part 3.

I do worry what they'll do with part 3 though. They're not just going to abandon the nonsense. Rebirth was like 98% fantastic, but those whispers moments and their take on what is one of the most iconic scenes in video games ever just upsets me.

Hofstaderman21d ago

80 hours into rebirth and loving it. Bring it on Square.

gold_drake21d ago

i had 118h at the end. with everything done minues the queens blood stuff. and i absolutely loved every minute of it

Hofstaderman21d ago

I just want to say bugger mog house level 6. Will return to that later

Shiro17320d ago

Only one thing I hated it and it was the relic hunt for the sand spot next to the flying saucer. I hated that mini game for the relic. Killing those cactus with Aerith was annoying.

fr0sty21d ago

I like the remakes better than the original that I grew up playing back in the 90s... they are doing it right. And that soundtrack... I still jam the Gongaga theme all the time.

Show all comments (41)