Respawn co-founder and CEO Vince Zampella will spearhead EA’s DICE LA into a new direction. A developer who previously acted as a support studio for DICE Stockholm will develop its own game under the leadership of the veteran Zampella. According to reports, EA’s plan is to turn DICE LA into an independent studio; a name change and a new logo are expected.
DICE LA is known for their assistance in the development of DICE Stockholm’s projects, from the Frostbite engine development to games like Mirror’s Edge, Star Wars Battlefront, and Battlefield.
In an interview with LA Times, Zampella shared EA’s vision for the studio:
“We will probably rebrand,” Zampella says. “We want to give it a new image. We want people to say, ‘This is a destination you can go and make new content.’ 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.’”
Vince Zampella will continue his duties as Respawn’s CEO, while acting as DICE LA “head coach”. Respawn will continue their development of Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, an Oculus Rift exclusive title to launch this summer.
EA chief studios officer, Laura Miele, shared her thoughts about the future of DICE LA. “I think under Vince’s leadership the expectation is to have them work on and create a game on their own.”
Vince Zampella also reiterated that Titanfall won’t return anytime soon. He feels the series is “generic sci-fi”. He told LA Times, “That’s terrible for me to say about my own game,” but adds, “We wanted something more identifiable by going into characters… To identify with a character, either by play style or because you like who they are and what they stand for, it was important for us to take that next step. Character-based is now super important to what we do.”
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