Respawn Entertainment founder and CEO Vince Zampella will be adding to his list of responsibilities in 2020 as he will lead DICE Los Angeles going forward.
The news was announced by Zampella in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. The former Infinity Ward CEO will be staying on with Respawn, the company he founded with Jason West after both were fired by Activision in 2010. While nothing is set in stone, he currently plans to change the name of DICE L.A. as it will no longer be used as a support studio for DICE Stockholm.
“We will probably rebrand,” said Zampella, who stressed that it is important to give the company a new image. “I think they’ve kind of gotten the branding that they are the support studio for DICE Stockholm. I think rebranding is important for showing people, ‘Hey! Come work here. We’re going to do some amazing things.’”
Despite Zampella’s connection between DICE L.A. and Respawn, there won’t be any major collaboration between the two Electronic Arts-owned studios in terms of making games together. “We do talk a lot, and the more we interact and learn from and teach each other, the better we’ll be,” explained the Titanfall creator. “So there’s interaction, but as far as the games, they’re their own studio.”
EA chief studios officer Laura Miele is facilitating the transition. Her goal with the move is to diversify the company’s output and to make DICE L.A. go from “a support team to a full stand-alone studio to create a new game offering.” The branch was created in early 2013 to support DICE’s Battlefield series and was largely composed of former Danger Close Games employees. Their first title under Vince Zampella will be their first title as lead developer.
