Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment is reportedly at work on a new single-player game. The game appears to be related to Apex Legends, Respawn’s popular free multiplayer battle royale.
Little is known about the game at this early stage, and, likely, it won’t move forward until after development on Respawn’s upcoming Jedi Fallen Order sequel is completed. It doesn’t appear to be a sequel, either to Apex Legends or Titanfall 2. There will be those that sat bolt upright at the words “Respawn” and “single-player”, but stand down: though Apex is canonically set in the Titanfall universe, it’s not broadly thought to be Titanfall 3 either.
The game’s existence was revealed via a job ad on Respawn’s website, calling for a Senior Engine and Systems Engineer with C++ skills. The successful candidate will oversee engineering on Apex Universe projects.
Apex Legends has become EA’s most popular new IP since its surprise launch in 2019. Its development was something of a passion project internally. It came out of the studio’s now-familiar approach to early design, which is to break into smaller teams and prototype big ideas. A Titanfall pitch with battle royale mechanics based on PUBG was the most popular candidate. Apex Legends became Respawn’s first live service game. It was also the game that popularised a now-widespread non-verbal communication system, the Ping.
Contrary to Respawn’s concern that Titanfall fans would think EA had forced them to make a BR title, EA’s brass was reportedly reticent about the entire project. “Not to be throwing EA under the bus, but this wasn’t the game they were expecting,” Executive Producer Drew McCoy told Game Informer at the time. “I had to go to executives, show it to them, and explain it and … not convince but more, ‘Hey, trust us! This is the thing you want out of us.’”
The ‘gut feeling’ that guided the game’s development panned out. Apex Legends‘ popularity exceeded all expectations and instantly became EA’s most recognisable new IP in years. That Respawn plans to capitalise on its characters and the little pocket of the Titanfall world they inhabit should come as no surprise.
Though it may not be Titanfall 3 (and keep the faith, true believers, we’ll get there one day), I feel like Respawn has earned some trust on this one.
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