Respawn need to keep their own IP
Activision taught them that
THQ's Core Games boss Danny Bilson has made the bold claim that EA was not Respawn's first choice of publisher.
Bilson explained in an interview with Wired that they had almost agreed a deal with Respawn bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella but it fell apart at the last minute over ownership of IP.
The THQ man said: "We were one deal point away from signing [Respawn]. I saw [West and Zampella] recently, and they said it was that only one deal point, one that I wouldnt cave on. My responsibility to our stockholders and to my CEO and the company is to build an IP library."
Zampella confirmed this adding: "It should come as no surprise that, after Activision fired us in March 2010, the other major video game publishers contacted Jason and me about working with them. Ive known Danny Bilson for many years, so THQ was one of the publishers who approached us. We had serious discussions with them. As for the IP ownership, frankly, after what wed just been through with Activision, owning the IP we were going to create was important to us. Unfortunately, THQ did not want to agree to that."
