Zampella: MW3 "held hostage" accusations are "false and outrageous"

Vince Zampella, the newly made General Manager of upstart Respawn Entertainment, has said that accusations of him and fellow ex-head of Infinity Ward Jason West "holding hostage" the development of Modern Warfare 3 are "false".

Speaking to Eurogamer earlier this evening, Zampella would only say the clams were "false and outrageous and that's all we really have to say about it."

It comes as notes discovered from Activision's countersuit against the pair - Zampella and West are suing the publisher for $36 million and full rights to the Modern Warfare IP - mention that future editions of the Modern Warfare IP were being "held hostage", with full production on MW3 delayed unless Activision met their demands when they were at Infinity Ward, which was most probably down to money.

The studio's formation was announced earlier today.

Respawn will maintain full control over intellectual properties it will create under the partnership with EA Partners, which will have publishing and distribution rights to its games for the foreseeable future.

Zampella has already said that creating the new studio was “daunting and exciting”, adding today was “a total reset”.

Meanwhile, at the formal reveal for Crytek’s Crysis 2 last week in New York, EA Partners boss David DeMartini told VG247’s Patrick Garratt that Infinity Ward’s creative team had “blown up”, citing the developer of this year’s Call of Duty title Treyarch as the “b-team”.

Activision, on the other hand, is in “we told you so” mode: it says the move comes as “no surprise” to the firm “given the myriad of improper activities” detailed by the firm in its countersuit to Ward and Zampella on Friday.