Respawn, the developer of Apex Legends and the Star Wars Jedi collection, introduced that it’s shedding an unknown variety of employees and canceling two early-stage initiatives with a view to focus extra on its flagship titles. The studio posted a press release on social media confirming the “focused group changes” and the canceled initiatives, and its dedication to “player-first experiences.”
The corporate stated, “As we sharpen our focus for the longer term, we’ve made the choice to step away from two early-stage incubation initiatives and make some goal group changes throughout Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi. These choices aren’t simple, and we’re deeply grateful to each teammate affected — their creativity and contributions have helped construct Respawn into what it’s in the present day.” It additionally added that the laid-off workers have the choice to discover “new alternatives inside EA.”
The developer didn’t reveal any particulars concerning the incubation initiatives which have been shut down. In keeping with IGN, a type of incubation initiatives was the multiplayer FPS, the cancelation of which was first revealed again in March, and a few of these engaged on the initiatives have been reassigned to EA Motive’s Iron Man title.
This isn’t the primary time Respawn’s been hit with layoffs, nor a primary for Digital Arts as an entire. The writer laid off 670 folks final 12 months and likewise canceled a then-in-development Star Wars FPS (seemingly not the identical because the incubation challenge talked about above). It additionally had two rounds of layoffs in 2023, together with 6% of employees in March and 50 folks at developer BioWare in August.
