Respawn commits to ‘ten years’ of Apex Legends support by opening new studio
After four years, Apex Legends finds itself in a little bit of limbo. The battle royale title has seen quite a varied amount of success over its tenure, having been hugely popular upon its launch and another influx of players arriving as Warzone faltered and popular content creators moved over.
With the highs, there have been lows, and while the game gets a lot of tinkering, the player count has stagnated.
However, Respawn Entertainment is standing behind its shooter and pledging "ten years" of development, as they open up a brand new Apex Legends-dedicated studio.
Respawn Entertainment opens third Apex Legends developer studio
With Respawn Entertainment being pulled from pillar to post with their plethora of games including the upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the sequel to Fallen Order, the developers have opened a third studio dedicated to just Apex Legends.
Leading the studio is Ryan Burnett, who spent 14 years as a Call of Duty developer for Raven Software - the main Warzone team.
"When I was looking at this, I saw nothing but opportunity and growth and that excited me. And given my past experience, I felt I could come in and build a team that has a strong impact on this franchise and really helps it grow in the future," Burnett told Games Industry.biz.
Respawn wants '10 to 15 years' of Apex Legends support
With the opening of the new studio, Respawn has now pledged its long-term future to the game, insisting that there will be over a decade more to come from Apex Legends.
"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," said Respawn co-founder and CEO Vince Zampella, who also detailed that it takes around 18 months to build a Legend and enter them into the arena, implying that there are many more on the way.
The new studio is now looking at ways to build on what Apex Legends has to offer but also make it more accessible for new players, which is always the scare when making games more convoluted with content for long-time players.