Apex Legends
Electronic Arts has laid off 300 to 400 employees, including about 100 developers from the Respawn studio. It also canceled the Titanfall game.
According to a source familiar with the situation, EA has not officially confirmed specific figures. But the company admitted that there were cuts that allegedly «allocate resources to stimulate future growth». For this purpose, the project codenamed R7 was canceled — it was supposed to be a shooter set in the same universe as Titanfall and Apex Legends. R7 was not announced publicly, it was at an early stage of development. However Titanfall 3 rumors have been raging recently.
«As we sharpen our focus for the future we’ve made the decision to step away from two early-stage incubation projects and make some targeted team adjustments across Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi. These decisions aren’t easy, and we are deeply grateful to every teammate affected – their creativity and contributions have helped build Respawn into what it is today. We’re offering meaningful support to those impacted, including exploring new opportunities within EA», — Respawn confirmed these changes, though without specifying the extent.
The statement also says that Respawn «is expanding the capabilities of Apex» and «is investing in what’s next for the» franchise. It’s not directly stated, but this could be a hint of a full-fledged new game in the Apex Legends universe.
As for Star Wars Jedi, Respawn mentioned the third part of the series again. The team is supposedly aiming to «raise the bar for storytelling and gameplay», but now the question arises as to how exactly they will do it after such a massive cut.
EA has already reduced staff and canceled games several times over the past year, including canceled Respawn’s Mandalorian game. And later has refused to develop Dead Space for the creator of the fourth part of the game. This time, the company officially called it «changes that more effectively coordinate teams and allocate resources». These changes also affect the voice actors, as previously involved in Apex Legends forced to train the AI that is supposed to replace them.
Source: Bloomberg