Infinity Ward & Respawn co-founder reportedly hired by Epic

Published , by Asif Khan

Epic Games has been flexing its financial muscle fueled by the wildly successful Fortnite battle royale game. The company has apparently been acquiring talent as well as companies, with a rumor circulating the Internet that Infinity Ward and Respawn Entertainment co-founder Jason West has been quietly hired to work with the team at Epic. Geoff Keighley broke the news via Twitter.

Jason West has his name all over the Call of Duty series, serving as CTO of Infinity Ward. West and his partner Vince Zampella later went on to form Respawn Entertainment which has gone on to have huge success with Apex Legends after stumbling financially with the critically-acclaimed Titanfall series. The team at Respawn has also been tapped by EA to take on the new Star Wars game, Jedi: The Fallen Order. It would appear that Tim Sweeney and the team at Epic Games value West's experience in the FPS genre, which fits right in with the folks behind the Unreal Engine. 

Jason West and Vince Zampella seen here modeling some great shirts.

At this point, the hiring of Jason West by Epic Games is a rumor. We don't really know what to expect yet, but a Keighley Bomb was dropped on Twitter. One thing is certain, Epic Games knows that they have a lead with the success of Fortnite, and they want to keep the momentum going.The company has been making a ton of disruptive moves in the industry, announcing Epic Online Services at GDC as well as the continued onslaught of Epic Games Store exclusives directly targeting Steam's market share of PC software sales. It will be interesting to see what West ends up doing at Epic Games, if the rumors are true. We will be sure to keep our readers updated on this news and everything battle royale as it breaks from the frontlines of the launcher wars.