As of today,Respawn Entertainment and EA have launchedApex Legends, the new battle royale shooter that takes place in theTitanfalluniverse. While this is the first game that the developer has shipped sinceTitanfall 2back in 2016, it’s not the only one that Respawn plans on launching this year withStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderpreparing to release around the holidays.
With Respawn now being a studio that works on multiple projects though, many–myself included–were curious as to how the developer is now segmented. Did many of those who worked onTitanfallandTitanfall 2migrate over to work onStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderwhen Respawn got that gig or did they stick around to make what is nowApex Legends? Well, one Respawn dev seems to have given that answer.
In a conversation with VG24/7,Apex Legendsdesign director Mackey McCandlish gave a bit more information about how the studio is currently segmented between the multiple projects they are running. According to McCandlish, the team that is now actively working onStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderwas essentially all-new to the studio when the opportunity arose for Respawn to create that title. McCandlish said that less than 10 members from theTitanfallteam went over to work onStar Warswhile most others stayed around to help with what is nowApex Legends.
McCandlish explained further thatStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderessentially began with the hiring of Stig Asmussen first who then built out his own team. “The way we approach development is a game director-first approach. Vince Zampella gets Stig Asmussen in, he’s madeGod of War, he starts hiring loads of people for the team," McCandlish said in the interview. “Myself and others helped interview for that team just to lend some time to help it get off the ground. But I haven’t been heavily involved – it’s off to the races for them.”
Considering theTitanfallteam at Respawn is so good at making first-person games andStar Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderis a third-person game, it doesn’t come as a huge shock that Respawn would have very little crossover between the two games. It makes more sense for Respawn to hire people more directly for those more well-suited to working on a third-person game, much as they did.
Apex Legendsis out now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Orderis set to release for those same platforms but still doesn’t have a launch date other than Holiday 2019.
