Respawn Entertainment has opened a third studio.
The EA-owned developer announced the news today, saying that the new studio is based in Madison, Wisconsin and is led by “veteran AAA FPS and battle royale developers,” according to a report. Press Release. This Madison-based studio will primarily focus on creating content for Respawn’s FPS battle royale, Apex Legends.
Here’s the studio opening statement from Daniel Suarez, Respawn’s senior executive vice president:
We’re extremely excited to announce that the Apex Legends team at Respawn will continue to strengthen its dev team with the introduction of a brand new studio location in Madison, Wisconsin led by industry veteran Ryan Burnett, leader.
Ryan is an extraordinary leader with a proven track record in live service games and a mainstay in the large Midwest game development community in Madison. With nearly two decades of development experience at places like Raven Software and Epic Games, Ryan has a history of inspiring the kind of creativity and innovation in his teams that are the foundation of games like Apex Legends.
From day one, we believed that Respawn was not a single location but a mindset: when passionate and talented people are free to create, they achieve the unexpected. . This perspective has helped us expand successfully into Vancouver in 2019, and as the workplace has grown, it has helped us continue to work on the best that the gaming industry has to offer, whether in office, remote or hybrid. We see that Respawn mindset is reflected in Madison, which has established itself as one of the great game development cities not only in the US but around the world. That’s why we’ve worked closely and appreciate the support of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) to help facilitate the growth of the Madison studio.
At its core, this expansion demonstrates Respawn’s commitment to partnering with the most creative, curious, and skilled minds in the industry. Having just celebrated our 4th anniversary, our goal is to continue to make Apex Legends the first Battle Royale on the market. I couldn’t think of a better addition than the incredibly talented developers at Madison working alongside our Los Angeles and Vancouver teams to help us shape what’s next.
This studio opened just three weeks later EA lays off more than 200 Apex Legends quality testers at the office in Baton Rouge, Louisiana via a Zoom call.
