Respawn has opened a third studio to work on Apex Legends

Respawn Entertainment has opened a third development studio to work on Apex Legends.

Based in Madison, Wisconsin, the studio is being led by Ryan Burnett, who was formerly director of engine production at Epic Games and also spent 14 years at Call of Duty developer Raven Software.

Burnett told GamesIndustry.biz that the Wisconsin studio will work hand-in-hand with Respawn’s Los Angeles and Vancouver branches to help deliver a new season of the battle royale game every 90 days.

Apex Legends director Steven Ferreira said: “Building the live service of Apex is a constant cycle of trying new things and experimenting, and that’s what Wisconsin is going to give us – that capacity to do more of that, pushing into new area like Legend classes and trying to do things we haven’t done before.

“There’s two kinds of key pieces there: one is obviously the capacity part of it and helping us to build up our team structure to do that, but the other is new perspectives and ideas. Folks with different experiences and different backgrounds are something we’re always looking at.”

Apex Legends Season 16, Revelry, launched in February. For the first time since the game’s release four years ago, a new season wasn’t accompanied by a fresh Legend. Instead, Respawn introduced “remastered” Legend classes.

Revelry also added the long-requested Team Deathmatch as a new limited time mode and sunsetted Arenas.

“Team health is absolutely a top priority for us because we’re in this for the long haul,” Ferreira said. “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. In order to do that, we can’t just put everything all upfront, burn ourselves out and not be ready to do that in the long haul.”

In January, Respawn owner EA announced plans to close Apex Legends Mobile. It also reportedly cancelled an unannounced Titanfall game that was being planned as a single-player experience for Apex Legends.

More recently, EA reportedly laid off over 200 quality assurance testers dedicated to Apex Legends.