What will Respawn spawn first?

Jason West and Vince Zampella, creators of the Call of Duty franchise and former heads of Infinity Ward, have announced the formation of a new independent development studio – Respawn Entertainment. The studio has announced that it has awarded Electronic Arts, through the EA Partners program, exclusive worldwide publishing and distribution rights to future games. But what kind of game will Jason and Vince work on first? Read on for our thoughts.

Tom Orry, Editor

If rumours are to be believed, one of the reasons ex-Infinity Ward big cheeses Jason West and Vince Zampella parted company with Activision is their desire to make a sci-fi first-person shooter. Now the two are heading up Respawn Entertainment and working with EA, do I think they’ll make a sci-fi shooter, giving the publisher a potential Halo killer? No. My money is on a fairly safe bet: a modern warfare FPS billed as “from the creators of Call of Duty”. I’m not dismissing the idea of a sci-fi game altogether, but I’d be surprised if the studio’s first effort strayed too far beyond the near future setting of Modern Warfare. If EA and Respawn come out with a game featuring a futuristic marine shooting purple aliens with Predator-like jaws, I’ll eat my hat. I actually wouldn’t completely rule out a multiplayer-only release, which would be quicker to develop, allowing EA to get the game to market before Jason and Vince are old news.

Wesley Yin-Poole, Deputy Editor

First, what a name! Respawn Entertainment is beautifully subtle while unmistakeably gamey. Here we have two video game creators making a fresh start after crafting the most successful entertainment product of all time – “Respawn” says it all. Second, my guess is they’ll do some sort of sci-fi shooter. Here’s my reasoning: sci-fi was the rumoured time period for Call of Duty 6. No doubt Zampella and West have tired of the traditional Call of Duty setting, both past and near future, having made such games for a decade. And EA doesn’t need another shooter set in a modern warfare environment; it’s got the wonderful Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and the upcoming Medal of Honor on its books already. So I reckon Respawn’s first game will be a first-person shooter (it has to be an FPS, doesn’t it?) that settles down somewhere between Halo and Modern Warfare; serious, sci-fi, gritty, bombastic, and above all, kick-ass.

James Orry, News Editor

The first clue lies in the name; Respawn Entertainment suggests one thing: a first-person shooter with multiplayer. It’s hard to imagine the first title from Zampella and West being anything but a military shooter of some kind. The pair are hot property right now, but put out a dud and their stock value will quickly decline. They’ll try something different a bit further down the line, but I’m guessing their first game will be as close to the current Modern Warfare experience as possible, making it a piece of cake for the current crop of 25 million players to make an easy transition. As for the setting, I think we’ll jump from ‘Modern’ combat to ‘Future’ combat, with a sci-fi story set on earth and possibly an alien planet. I’ll call it ‘Future War: Colonies”, that sounds like a solid, yet generic sci-fi title. Oh, and it’ll have four-player co-op and competitive multiplayer with a levelling system featuring customisable options known as privileges.

Neon Kelly, Previews Editor

Like everyone else, my super-original opinion is that Respawn Studios will probably make a shooting game, viewed from a first person perspective. As to where this SFP game will be set, I’m not sure – but I hope that they don’t make yet another space marine game. What I’d ideally like is a shooter based around an elite unit of cavemen warriors. Weapons would include sharp sticks, big bones, and rocks in various sizes. If you like playing as a speedy, run-and-gun kind of player, you carry lots of pebbles; if you like playing as a tank, you just get one massive boulder. There would also be a controversial level where you play as a sabre-tooth tiger that goes into a cave and mauls a load of women and children. If I can’t have a caveman game, I’d like some kind of pirate-themed FPS. Unfortunately, they’ll probably just make some kind of warfare experience in a modern setting, where people are called of (for) duty. Either that, or they’ll make a space marine game. Bah.

Tim Empey, Guest Contributor

Respawn Entertainment? Spawn… frogs, Todd Mcfarlane, camping. It’s bound to be something that encapsulates all of that. So a first-person Frogger game where the cars are replaced by demons from hell and everyone wears a daft cloak. There will probably be some capture the lily pad online mode but if you get too many frogs it sinks and everyone turns into a tadpole for no real apparent reason. Or failing that, because it’s a rubbish idea, it’s bound to be something along the lines of Modern Warfare. But how modern? It’s difficult to say, but it may be so modern that it’s post modern, or even more modern than that and be something that will be called neo super post modern and set in various dimensions of the multi-verse. A bit like a fancy Timesplitters, but with dimension jumping instead of time travel. And set in space. Modern space.

What will Respawn’s first game be? Let us know in the comments section below.