Respawn opens third studio to run Top Legends for another ’10 to 15 years’

Apex Legends developer Respawn has opened a third studio to keep the popular battle royale franchise going for another “10 to 15 years.” The new studio is located in Madison, Wisconsin.

While it may contribute to other Respawn products in the future, this third studio (the first two are located in Los Angeles and Vancouver) will focus primarily on Apex Legends to ensure a consistent and, more importantly, sustainable production pipeline. can be ensured. The studio will be led by Ryan Burnett, who previously worked at Epic Games as director of engine production, in addition to a long 14-year career at Raven Software, the Call of Duty studio.

In a deep Interview with GamesIndustry.bizDaniel Suarez, senior VP of operations at Respawn, says “team health is absolutely a top priority for us because we’re in it for the long haul. We believe in Apex as a franchise that’s going to be around for 10, 15 is. year or so and we’re excited to do that. To do that, we can’t put everything up front, burn ourselves out and be ready to do it in the long run.”

Apex Legends runs a new season of content every 90 days, so consistency (as well as enough of a production runway) is important to make that timeline realistic. Introducing new characters into the game takes a lot longer than you might expect, as Suarez notes, “A legend takes us a year to a year and a half to get into the game. So we’re on things. Working. Well done already.”

The news comes just weeks after parent company EA fired more than 200 Apex Legends QA testers in an unscheduled Zoom call, leading some fans to question the future of the game.

What do you think about Respawn opening a third studio? Do you think Apex Legends legs will last another 15 years? Discuss all this and more in the comments section below.