Rock, Paper, Shotgun

No, of course not. It’s something I scribbled in GIMP in a couple of minutes. But we’ll apparently have concrete information on “something” soon. GamesIndustry.biz report that the Ex-Infinity Ward group Respawn Entertainment will be up to something at E3. “big time announcement at E3 next week. stay tuned, kiddies!” they say on facebook, showing a Walker-worrying contempt for capitalisation. I’m actually not sure what to expect from a team who’ve existed for so short a span. I can’t see more than the game’s title and rough genre, and I doubt any imagery even as good as mine will be put out there. Hell, we’d be lucky with a logo. Or it could be the sort of Big Time Announcement which is more of interest to industry watchers than gamers, like some manner of media deal or major hires. Or maybe they’ve made up with Activision and are best buddies again. Well, let’s be honest. I suspect that’s as unlikely as whatever they’re working on being an FPS is likely.

EDIT: 1UP are reporting sources close to Respawn that this Facebook account is a fraud, despite the fact it’s existed for months with no censure – or identification that it’s fake – from Respawn. You almost admire the long-game played by – if it proves to be true – the account fakers. Do something vaguely credible for months at a time just to have one moment of lying. Which does nothing to excuse our culpability, of course. It’s an interesting thing, this E3 season.

Shortly after the news of the legal barrage starting, news breaks that the ejected Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella have formed a new company – the wittily named, minimialistically site-d Respawn – which will partner with EA to produce their next game. Eurogamer’s long interview with West and Zampella reveals few facts – there’s much they can’t comment on, either due to legal reasons or because their company hasn’t even offices or staff yet – but manages to entertainingly capture the mood of the pair right now. The key fact is: whatever they create will be theirs, rather than the publisher’s. But what to expect? “Well, we hope that it will be a fresh and new experience that will surprise people, but we’re not going to make Boom Blox or something, it’s going to be a big huge game,” says West. I dare speculate that it’ll involve a weapon sticking out of the bottom right of the screen.