Epic Games hires Infinity Ward and Respawn co-founder Jason West

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West helped turn Call of Duty into one of the biggest videogame series of all time.

Epic Games has signed another big name, but this time it's not a game but a person: Jason West, who co-founded Call of Duty studio Infinity Ward with Vince Zampella and Grant Collier in 2002, and then split with parent company Activision (under less-than-pleasant circumstances) to launch Titanfall and Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment with Zampella in 2010. 

Word of the surprise hiring came from Game Awards creator and ever-present man on the inside Geoff Keighley, who just tweeted it out: 

An Epic Games rep confirmed West's hiring but didn't specify his role at the company, saying only that he "is contributing to Epic's development efforts." He's been out of the game development business for awhile now, having left Respawn in 2013, but he amassed an impressive list of credits prior to that, including as the engineering lead on the first two Call of Duty games, the project lead on Modern Warfare, and the director of Modern Warfare 2.   

Respawn's current big thing is the surprise battle royale hit Apex Legends, but a possibly even bigger thing is its upcoming Star Wars game, Jedi: Fallen Order. Maybe it's coincidence and maybe it's not, but after nearly a year of speculation, it will finally be revealed to the world at Star Wars Celebration on April 13, which is tomorrow.

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.