Respawn opens a new studio to focus on the future of Apex Legends

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The Vancouver-based studio has been growing internally for months

(Image credit: EA/Respawn)

Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment has opened a new studio in Vancouver, Canada to focus on the future of its hit free-to-play battle royale.

"Rather than list out the thing we want to get done and therefore what roles we need, we started off with: we know we want to build Apex, and Apex has a huge opportunity to evolve in the future, being a live service game," team director Steven Ferreira told Games Industry. "And so we started with who was passionate about making Apex, and we built a team around strong individuals as opposed to a project plan that you would conventionally start off a project around." 

"At Respawn we've already got a lot of innovations underway," adds Apex Legends game director Chad Grenier. "The trouble is we can't do all the innovations we want - there are just too many. How do you choose which ones to run with, and which ones are best for the game? And building a team in Vancouver is only going to help us bring more to the game." 

The new Vancouver studio will be dedicated to updates and maintenance for Apex Legends, but Respawn COO Dusty Welch stressed that the studio isn't limited to the battle royale. "We love to dabble," he told Games Industry "[Studio head Vince Zampella] loves to dabble in all kinds of projects. His taste for game-making is not just in shooters. But look, you've got Star Wars out there - that's a huge passion for Vince and I - and we love all kinds of different games, and we'll continue to think about ways to expand."

We do know one thing about Respawn's other projects: it isn't currently working on another Titanfall game. Players have been hungry for more mech-shooter action ever since Titanfall 2's undeserved flop, and Apex Legends, which uses many Titanfall weapons and systems to great effect, has only reinforced that. The good news is that Zampella says a series revival hasn't been ruled out, and many other folks at Respawn would love to make it happen.

Here are the latest Apex Legends patch notes, from map changes to new quests. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.