Respawn Expands with New Studio to Fuel Apex Legends' Long-Term Success

The enduring popularity of Apex Legends has prompted Respawn to launch its third studio, dedicated to supporting the battle royale game's continued growth. Originally founded by former Call of Duty developers, Respawn is renowned for its work on Titanfall, Star Wars Jedi, and Apex Legends. As the studio continues to garner attention with its upcoming Star Wars game, Jedi Survivor, it's Apex Legends that's driving expansion, with the new Wisconsin studio initially focusing on supporting the game. The latest studio will contribute to other Respawn products in the future, but its primary focus will be on Apex Legends. According to Greg Wilson, Respawn vice president and general manager of the Apex franchise, 'Producing content on the scale and pace Apex requires is no easy feat. So we are always working to bring in more talent, more experience, more ideas, more capabilities.' To lead the new team, Respawn has hired Ryan Burnett as studio director for Wisconsin. Burnett spent 14 years at Call of Duty studio Raven Software and previously worked at Epic Games as director of engine production. Wisconsin is becoming a central development hub, and Burnett believes the area offers a rich talent pool to draw from. 'When I look at the Apex franchise, I think it's one of the best out there,' he says. 'The gameplay, the movement, and the gunplay are nothing like anything else out there. We're best in class when you look at other battle royale competitors in terms of movement and gameplay.' The Wisconsin studio will work closely with Respawn's Los Angeles and Vancouver studios to maintain the game's cadence of a new season every 90 days. Game director Steven Ferreira notes that the new studio will provide the capacity to try new things and experiment with different ideas. 'There are two kinds of key pieces there: one is obviously the capacity part of it, and helping us to build up our team structure to do that, but the other is new perspectives and ideas,' he says. Wilson adds that the studio's growth has precedence, pointing to the successful opening of its second studio in 2019. 'When the mostly Los Angeles-based team that launched Apex needed to grow, we looked to Vancouver,' he explains. 'And we didn't just hire some people in Vancouver, we built a studio presence, and that's been wildly successful for us.' The studio's expansion into Wisconsin is part of its long-term plan to support Apex Legends, with the goal of maintaining the game's quality and keeping players engaged. As Ferreira notes, 'Team health is absolutely a top priority for us because we're in this for the long haul. We believe in Apex as a franchise that's going to be around for 10, 15 years or more, and we're excited to make that happen.'