It looks like Apex Legends players have a little something to celebrate. Developer Respawn Entertainment appears to be upping its game when it comes to this battle royale shooter as it is opening a new studio in Vancouver. The new office is going to be led by current head of operations Henry Lee along with team director Steven Ferreira. This latest development was revealed in a report from gamesindustry.biz.
Apex Legends was released in February 2019 for the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. What made this rather unique is that the game was released without the studio building up hype with trailers and teasers or even a prior announcement. Most people at that time had been thinking that Respawn was working on a new installment for its Titanfall series. Granted, Apex Legends is in the same universe as Titanfall.
Despite that, the game managed to reach more than 25 million players by the end of its first week. Within a month, that number had grown to 50 million. The game has also received mainly positive reviews, citing its progression system and gameplay.
So why the decision to create a new studio? According to the same report, Game Director Chad Grenier revealed that there are already a lot of innovations at Respawn, but the problem is that there are too many, and they have a problem working on all innovations that they want. He went on to say that “building a team in Vancouver is only going to help us bring more to the game.”
It’s not just improvements to Apex Legends though, as it looks like there’s a longer plan in store. According to Respawn COO Dusty Welch, EA has so far been hands-off when it comes to the game. Welch did admits that Respawn “have a long-term view for where we’d like to take the franchise, and EA supports that long-term view of building out the franchise.” He cited FIFA and Call of Duty, two games that didn’t reach to where they are right now in one night. Welch ended by saying that they appreciate not only the support that EA has been giving, but also the lack of pressure.
With a dedicated team now working on Apex Legends, there’s a big chance new things are bound to arrive soon.
