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Seven More Join Infinity Ward Exodus, Seven Respawn
At this point, we've seen so many stories on the continued flow of employees leaving Infinity Ward, that writing another feels like déjà vu. Ignore those strange emotions, though; I promise you haven't heard this one before. Updated with even more people gone.
Today Kotaku has confirmed five more developers that have left the Activision-owned studio that created the mega-hit Call of Duty franchise and, more recently, the Modern Warfare spin-off. This time the list includes senior designer Mohammad Alavi, senior designer Chad Grenier, programmer Chris Lambert, designer Jason McCord., and senior designer Brent McLeod. On top of those five, George Broussard of 3D Realms has said on his Twitter account that two more have left, including Charlie Wiederhold, bringing today's total departures to seven.
This latest group brings the total number of employees who have left Infinity Ward since Activision fired Jason West and Vince Zampella to at least 20 that we know of.
Meanwhile, G4 is reporting that, as expected, a large number of the ex-Infinity Ward team is heading over to work at West and Zampella's new studio, Respawn Entertainment. According to the frequent updates from G4, the following team members are now confirmed to be with Respawn:
Todd Alderman (lead designer)
Mark Grigsby (lead animator)
Chris Cherubini (lead environmental artist)
John Paul Messerly (lead animator)
Rayme C. Vinson (software engineer)
Jon Shiring (programmer)
Mackey McCandlish (lead designer)
According to various comments made by these new recruits, Respawn is preparing to open its doors and hopefully begin work on its first game in May. How much more talent will be leaving Infinity Ward and wandering over to Respawn before then?
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