Infinity Ward and Respawn Entertainment co-founder Jason West has joined Epic Games.
The Game AwardscreatorGeoff Keighleyoriginally broke the news onTwitter, when he claimed that West had been working at theFortnitestudio for about a month.
The company subsequently confirmed to VGC that West is “helping with Epic’s development efforts”.
AlongsideVince Zampellaand Grant Collier, West was a founding member ofInfinity Ward, the studio that created the Call of Duty series.
During his time at the studio, Infinity Ward developed Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4:Modern WarfareandCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
The franchise’s publisher,Activision, acquired Infinity Ward in 2003. It fired West and Zampella in 2010, leading to a messy, two-year legal dispute.
Shortly after their dismissal, the developers foundedRespawn Entertainmentin April 2010. West left the studio amicably in 2013, citing family issues. Respawn’s debut game,Titanfall, launched in March 2014.
It’s unclear whatEpic Gamescurrently has in development. Late last year, CEOTim SweeneytoldVarietythat an Unreal Tournament revival project was on hold as the studio focused on the December 2018 launch of itsPCdigital distribution platform, theEpic Games store, and the continued support and growth of battle royale phenomenon Fortnite.
The studio claimed in March 2019 that the Epic Games store’s user base hadreached 85 million PC players, aided by the success of Fortnite, which it says hasover 250 million registered players.
