Just one day after former Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella officially unveiled Respawn Entertainment, a number of prominent, valuable employees have left beleaguered studio Infinity Ward. Have a look at who they are, and what they did at Infinity Ward:
- Chris Cherubin -- Lead Artist
- Bruce Ferriz -- Senior Animator
- Steve Fukuda -- Lead designer
- Mackey McCandlish -- Lead Designer
- Zied Reike -- Lead designer
- Jon Shiring -- Programmer
- Rayme Vinson -- Programmer
Of this current group, only person has indicated an immediate destination: Bruce Ferriz is bound for Big Red Button Entertainment, the studio founded in 2008 by former Naughty Dog Art Director Bob Rafei. As for the balance of the individuals listed above, speculation that they may join West and Zampella at Respawn Entertainment remains, for now, just that. The timing of the departures, however, is difficult to ignore.
Factoring in last week's departures, Todd Alderman (Lead Designer) and Francesco Gigliotti (Lead Software Engineer), plus West and Zampella, we now have 11 members of the Modern Warfare team no longer at Infinity Ward. Though one may debate the point at which the departure of individual team members fundamentally and irrevocably changes the nature of the team itself, the fact remains that Infinity Ward is hemmoraging people, and the process may be far from over.
Does the exodus of key staff change the way you think about Infinity Ward? Do you think that the studio that remains should carry forward with the Infinity Ward name?
Source: Joystiq