Jason West, one of the co-founders of game development studios Infinity Ward and Respawn Entertainment, is now working with Epic Games on a new project, according to a tweet from The Game Awards producer Geoff Keighley.
The “Fortnite” studio quietly hired West to work on its game development efforts, Keighley said. He’s reportedly been in Epic’s office for about a month.
Some game industry scoop: @EpicGames has quietly hired Jason West, @InfinityWard and @Respawn co-founder, to work on its game development efforts. From what I hear West, who lives in North Carolina, has been in the office for about a month. pic.twitter.com/nhR0zPq0mB
— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) April 12, 2019
Variety reached out to Epic Games, who confirmed Keighley’s tweet, and it reiterated that West is “contributing to Epic’s development efforts.” No further details were provided.
During his time at Infinity Ward, West worked on the “Call of Duty” franchise alongside co-founders Vince Zampella and Grant Collier, and their development team. Collier left in 2009 to join the studio’s parent company, Activision. West and Zampella were famously fired from Infinity Ward a year later, with Activision accusing the pair of breaches of contract and insubordination. They then sued their former publisher, claiming they were wrongfully terminated. Activision countersued, saying the pair planned to poach Infinity Ward talent and take them to rival publisher Electronic Arts. Both parties settled for an undisclosed amount in 2012.
After leaving Infinity Ward, West and Zampella founded a new studio called Respawn Entertainment and created the “Titanfall” franchise. West later retired from video game development in 2013, according to Polygon. At the time, Zampella said in a statement West left to “take care of some family issues.”
