40 Modern Warfare 2 Staffers Now At Respawn Entertainment

Respawn Entertainment, the studio founded last year by ex-Infinity Ward staff members, has updated its website, revealing how many IW staffers have joined the new development team. In April 2010, ex-Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella announced Respawn Entertainment and a publishing agreement with EA Partners, with EA's seed capital providing the startup funds for the project. Later in the month, numerous key members of staff at Infinity Ward revealed that they were moving over to Respawn, including former lead designer Todd Alderman. Infinity Ward soon found that it had lost 26 employees in total, as senior software engineer Chris Lambert and designer Brent McLeod also joined Respawn. The official Respawn Entertainment site has now been updated with a staff roster, showing that 40 of the currently listed 53 staff members worked on Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, with others also working on past Call of Duty titles. Respawn was born out of Activision's firing of West and Zampella for alleged insubordination, just a few months after the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The pair sued Activision, Infinity Ward's parent company, for $36 million over the firing.