The success of Apex Legends is continuing to grow with each passing year, posting the highest player numbers of all time following the release of season 16 in February and the four-year anniversary celebration events. Respawn Entertainment is seeking to build on this momentum with its first new studio in four years.
A tweet from Evan Nikolich, senior design director at Respawn, today confirmed the opening of a new studio in Madison, Wisconsin. Although Respawn is concurrently developing Star Wars: Jedi Survivor, the studio’s efforts will initially be focused on Apex Legends, working directly with the previously established studios in Los Angeles and Vancouver on Apex.
Respawn has hired Ryan Burnett as the studio director for the Wisconsin branch. Burnett is famous for his 14 years at Call of Duty studio Raven Software and his previous position as director of engine production at Epic Games.
“It was a natural progression and very quickly happened,” Burnett said. “Even though it’s a separate location, it’s an extension of the Apex Legends team. They’re not working on a different version of the game, we’re all working towards the same goals with the same vision.”
Respawn’s commitment to Apex comes to the relief of many fans, who wondered about the long-term health of the game following the shutdown of Apex Legends Mobile and the layoffs of over 100 QA testers by parent company Electronic Arts.
“Team health is absolutely a top priority for us because we’re in this for the long haul,” said Daniel Suarez, Respawn’s senior vice president of operations. “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.”
Backing up its claims, Respawn has added numerous quality-of-life improvements to Apex in the recent seasons and patches, including updates to the firing range after three seasons and an increase in security and response time following recent hacks and exploits found in public and private lobbies.
Apex’s latest season, Reverly, introduced many new concepts to the long-running battle royale, including a reworked class system, the Mixtape playlist that brought back popular LTMs, the first Heirloom update and recolor, and more changes that led to the most popular season in all of Apex’s lifespan. Season 16 initially launched on Feb. 14 and will last for three months, ending on May 9.
