14 DAY TRIAL // Information from a THQ executive is suggesting that, soon after leaving Infinity Ward and very publicly breaking it off with Activision, Vince Zampella and Jason West were interested in doing a publishing deal with THQ, with discussions breaking down when neither of the two companies were ready to back down over the problem of who owns the rights to the titles a developers creates.
It seems that ownership of the rights for the Modern Warfare name was one of the issues that lead to the falling out between the two developers and Activision, in addition to issues linked to payment of bonuses and alleged deal that were being done with rivals behind Activision's back.
Danny Bilson, who is the vice president in charge of games development at THQ, has told Wired in an interview that, “My responsibility to our stockholders and to my CEO and the company is to build an IP library” and that he could not acquiesce to the demands of Respawn Entertainment without having discussions about intellectual property with other developers working for the publisher he represents.
Zampella also referred to the THQ talks, adding, “As for the IP ownership, frankly, after what we'd just been through with Activision, owning the IP we were going to create was important to us. Unfortunately, THQ did not want to agree to that.”
At the moment, West and Zampella have formed Respawn Entertainment and they have entered into a long-term publishing agreement with Electronic Arts, with a new game apparently in the early stages of creation, with information set to only appear in 2012.
A lot of the most important developers working at Infinity Ward have followed the pair into gaming exile and Activision has pushed Infinity Ward into a long period of reconstruction.
Reports are suggesting that they are now working on a new title in the Call of Duty franchise.