Respawn Entertainment

Respawn Entertainment is a developer.

Respawn Entertainment Webpage, Facebook

Respawn Entertainment is an American video games developer for PC and consoles, founded in March 2010 by two former Infinity Ward employees: Vince Zampella and Jason West. The company is headquartered in Sherman Oaks, a southern suburb of Los Angeles, California, and the development studio consists of just under 200 people. Vince Zampella has been the head of Respawn Entertainment since the studio's inception. Although Respawn Entertainment has been associated with Electronic Arts almost since its inception, creating its games as part of the EA Partners program of cooperating with external developers, the team finally came under the wing of this publisher only in November 2017.

The American developer's debut franchise is the science fiction FPS series Titanfall from 2014. However, the studio did not intend to solely capitalize on the popularity of this brand, as evidenced by the third-person action game they created under the supervision of Stig Asmussen, set in the Star Wars universe - Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

History of Respawn Entertainment

A new beginning

On March 1, 2010, Activision Blizzard announced that two key employees of the Infinity Ward studio, owned by the holding company, had lost their jobs due to insubordination and failure to fulfill the terms of their contract. The people in conflict with their previous employer turned out to be Vince Zampella and Jason West – co-founders of Infinity Ward and co-creators of the most important installments of the Call of Duty series. A few weeks later, on April 12, 2010, the Los Angeles Times reported that Zampella and West had formed their own independent development studio called Respawn Entertainment. Over the next three months, the team was joined by 38 of the 46 former Infinity Ward employees who resigned in solidarity with their colleagues who had been dismissed by Activision Blizzard.

After forming the studio, Zampella and West first headed to the headquarters of Electronic Arts, seeking financial support for their debut project. As part of the EA Partners program of cooperation with external developers, a mutually beneficial agreement was concluded, according to which, regardless of the development of the cooperation, the co-founders of Respawn Entertainment were to retain the rights to all intellectual property created in the future. During E3 2011, EA Games brand manager Frank Gibeau revealed that Electronic Arts would be the publisher of a science fiction shooter developed by Respawn Entertainment, which was intended to compete with franchises such as Gears of War and Halo. However, it was not until April 2013 that the studio formally registered the trademark for its debut game, originally named Titan.

Titanfall era

In June 2013, during the E3, Respawn Entertainment presented its debut game Titanfall to the world, which was released in mid-March of the following year. Despite its partial exclusivity (availability only on Microsoft platforms, i.e. Windows systems and Xbox 360) and focusing mainly on the multiplayer mode, the production turned out to be a considerable commercial success. No one was therefore surprised by the fact that work on its sequel was confirmed in March 2015. Titanfall 2 was released at the end of October 2016 and, unlike its original, it was released on the three most important hardware platforms, also offering a full-fledged single-player campaign for the first time. In the meantime, that is in June 2014, Stig Asmussen joined Respawn Entertainment – he was a former employee of Sony Computer Entertainment Santa Monica studio, where he was mainly responsible for working on the God of War series. In May 2016, Asmussen himself announced that the production created under his leadership would be a third-person action game set in the iconic Star Wars universe.

The transition to EA and the Apex Legends era

In February 2017, Electronic Arts revealed that Titanfall 2 had not sold as well as expected. However, in November of the same year, the publisher decided to acquire Respawn Entertainment for $315 million in cash and stock. We also learned that the studio is working on another project set in the Titanfall universe.

As it turned out on February 3, 2019, it wasn't Titanfall 3, but a multiplayer battle royale shooter called Apex Legends. The game debuted on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One a day after its announcement, and was released in a free-to-play model. The title was a huge success – within eight hours of its release, it had one million unique players, and in the following days it broke popularity records on Twitch, attracting millions more (on February 12, the unique player count exceeded 25 million, and on March 4 – 50 million). Although it was announced on March 22nd that we were dealing with the best debut of a free-to-play game in history, the production began to quickly lose popularity already in April. Despite everything, Respawn Entertainment was not going to give up and quickly implemented an extensive update plan for their game, which was to provide new content every season.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

We've known since 2016 that Respawn Entertainment was working on an action-adventure game set in the Star Wars universe. In June 2018, we learned the title - Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The first details about it came to light in April 2019 (at that time we received confirmation that it would be a single-player game, and shortly thereafter we got the first trailer). E3 2019 brought a gameplay presentation and a release date set for November 15. Electronic Arts was counting on both artistic and financial success for this title, planning sales of at least 6 million copies. The title debuted on time and achieved spectacular artistic and commercial success, giving rise to a completely new brand. In May 2020, Electronic Arts boasted that over 10 million players had played it.

Respawn Entertainment, however, did not rest on its laurels. In 2020, a new studio branch was opened in Vancouver to focus on expanding Apex Legends. Also, in 2020 we got Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, an FPS designed for virtual reality headsets.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

In January 2022, the sequel to the biggest hit in the studio's portfolio was officially announced. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was initially intended for PC and eighth and ninth generation consoles, but the developers ultimately decided to abandon the development of a version for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game was released in April 2023.

In the meantime, in March 2023, Respawn Entertainment opened its third studio. The Madison-based team, headed by Ryan Burnett, an industry veteran who had worked on the Call of Duty series for many years at Raven Software, was to contribute to the development of Apex Legends (which, as expected at the time, was to be developed for the next 10-15 years).

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor launched on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on April 28, 2023. The PC version was plagued by major technical problems, so on the day of its release on Steam, players criticized the game, giving it "mostly negative" reviews. The industry media was much more kind; according to Metacritic, the average rating was between 78-85/100 (depending on the platform). However, the developers were aware of the state of the PC version, so they quickly started working on patches. As a result, the situation began to improve over time, which was also reflected in the reviews on Steam, which became "mixed" over the months.

Despite its problems, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was a commercial success. In August 2023, Electronic Arts announced that it had decided to prepare a version for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This is not the end, as in July the first indications appeared that the series would get a third game. In September, these rumors were confirmed by Cameron Monaghan, who plays the main character.

Changes, layoffs and canceled projects

Unfortunately, September 2023 also brought sad news related for Respawn Entertainment. After nine years of work, Stig Asmussen, who shaped Cal Kestis' adventure and, consequently, success, decided to leave the studio.

Meanwhile, on September 17, 2024, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. At the same time, Electronic Arts officially admitted that the upcoming third part of Cal Kestis' adventures will be the last. We also learned the sales numbers. According to information revealed by Laura Miele, President of EA Entertainment and Technology, the Star Wars Jedi brand was expected to reach over 40 million people worldwide.

In March 2024, Respawn Entertainment suffered a wave of layoffs, resulting in approximately 25 people losing their jobs. Another reduction in jobs took place at the end of April 2025; unofficially, it was said that as a result of it, about 100 people lost their jobs. Additionally, the studio was forced to cancel two projects; according to unofficial reports, one of them was an extraction shooter set in the Titanfall universe, codenamed R7.