Epic Games has found huge success with its battle royale game Fortnite. It also created the popular Gears of War franchise and the Unreal Tournament series. Now, it seems that the massively profitable studio is preparing to work on its next, successful game.

According to The Game Awards host Geoff Keighley, Epic Games has hired games industry veteran Jason West as part of its game development efforts. Keighley says that West, who founded Call of Duty: Modern Warfare studio Infinity Ward and went on to found Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment, has been working at Epic Games office in Cary, NC, for "about a month."

West's hiring at Epic Games is being seen as a big deal for several reasons. The first is that West has not worked in the games industry for around six years. West left Respawn Entertainment in 2013, just three years after founding the developer.

West left the company not long after he and Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella settled their lawsuit with Activision. An official company statement confirmed that West had left the company to "take care of some family issues."

It's also being seen as a big deal because many consider West to be an incredibly talented developer. Fans are very interested in seeing what West and the creative minds at Epic Games could work on together. While West was at Infinity Ward, the developer worked on Call of Duty, Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. West was also at Respawn for part of Titanfall's development. Some will be wondering if Epic Games hiring of West means that the developer wants to make a gritty, military shooter.

Whatever it is that West and the team at Epic Games are working on, they will all be hoping that the game can be as successful as Fortnite. Fortnite has become an international news story because of its popularity, with Grammy-award winning musicians, and star athletes all loving the game. Epic Games' Fortnite has more than 200 million players on PC, consoles, and mobile devices, and in 2018, it made $2.4 billion from sales of cosmetics and its battle pass.

Making another game that successful could be difficult, not least because Fortnite followed and capitalized a trend set by another game. However, West also has experience in making massively popular games and that could give Epic Games an advantage.

Source: Geoff Keighley - Twitter