Epic Games brings in Infinity Ward, Respawn co-founder Jason West
Jason West, a co-founder of Infinity Ward and Respawn, has joined the Epic Games development team. West has not been active in gaming since 2013 when the legend left Respawn. He is famously known for his work at Infinity Ward as a lead developer and director. West started Infinity Ward with Vince Zampella and Grant Collier and together created the famous Call of Duty series. After much success, Jason West and Vince Zampella left Infinity Ward to create Respawn Entertainment. The split came with much controversy. Now, Jason West begins another saga at Epic Games.
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
It is still unknown what Jason West will precisely do at Epic Games. The gaming company did confirm to Daily Esports that West does, in fact, work for Epic. He is “contributing to the development efforts.” In any event, his expertise is highly respected in the industry.
History in the gaming industry
Jason West began his career at Paradigm Entertainment. The first few games he worked on were racing games. Then West moved studios to Electronic Arts. In 2002 West was the Engineering Lead for Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. The game won several awards, including “Best Action Game of 2002.”
Next, he teamed up with Vince Zampella and Grant Collier to create the gaming studio Infinity Ward. The team created one of the most popular video games series of all time, Call of Duty, which has gone on to sell millions of copies and earn many awards.
Activision was the company that published the Modern Warfare games. But from early on, the publisher and developers argued about details of the series. After much success, the developers and the publisher had a falling out. The growing discontent eventually led to Vince Zampella and Jason West being removed from Infinity Ward. Their firing was followed by many lawsuits.
West and Zampella then created Respawn Entertainment. The gaming studio created Titanfall and most recently Apex Legends. However, Jason West left Respawn Entertainment in 2013 for personal reasons. He has not been involved in the industry since.
The hiring of Jason West proves that the team at Epic Games is working to continuously improve their game. Regardless of what role West actually has, his insight and experience bode well for Fortnite fans everywhere.
What do you think Jason West’s presence means for the future of Fortnite? Comment below what you think!
