Respawn, the developer of Apex Legends and the Star Wars Jedi series, announced that it’s laying off an unknown number of staff and canceling two early-stage projects in order to focus more on its flagship titles. The studio posted a statement on social media confirming the “targeted team adjustments” and the canceled projects, and its commitment to “player-first experiences.”
The company said, “As we sharpen our focus for the future, we’ve made the decision to step away from two early-stage incubation projects and make some target team adjustments across Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi. These decisions aren’t easy, and we are deeply grateful to every teammate affected — their creativity and contributions have helped build Respawn into what it is today.” It also added that the laid-off employees have the option to explore “new opportunities within EA.”
The developer didn’t reveal any details about the incubation projects that have been shut down. According to IGN, one of those incubation projects was the multiplayer FPS, the cancelation of which was first revealed back in March, and some of those working on the projects have been reassigned to EA Motive’s Iron Man title.
This is not the first time Respawn’s been hit with layoffs, nor a first for Electronic Arts as a whole. The publisher laid off 670 people last year and also canceled a then-in-development Star Wars FPS (seemingly not the same as the incubation project mentioned above). It also had two rounds of layoffs in 2023, including 6% of staff in March and 50 people at developer BioWare in August.