Apex Legends developer Respawn has canceled an incubation venture this week, and laid off an unknown quantity of people engaged on it within the course of.
This information was first reported by Insider Gaming, sourcing a now-unavailable LinkedIn submit from a former manufacturing coordinator who wrote that “The unannounced incubation venture I used to be a half of for the previous yr was canceled this week, so I’m becoming a member of the group of extraordinarily gifted and type people within the video games industry looking for a new position."
IGN has been able to independently confirm that Respawn has canceled an unannounced incubation project. IGN understands this was a multiplayer FPS (for which at least one job posting was listed last year) spun off by members of an internal team that was formerly working on a Star Wars FPS at Respawn, which was itself canceled last year. IGN can also confirm that a number of individuals have been laid off as part of the cancellation. Though we are unable to confirm the exact number, it has been characterized as "small" by a source aware of the venture. IGN has additionally recognized at the least one particular person related to the venture who has clarified on LinkedIn that their departure was voluntary.
This continues an ongoing trend of canceled initiatives, layoffs, and restructuring throughout EA, which kicked off in 2023 with the elimination of 50 jobs at BioWare and an unknown number more at Codemasters. The culling continued nearly precisely one yr in the past when the corporate laid off 670 workers company-wide and shuttered a number of initiatives, together with the aforementioned Star Wars FPS. As half of these cuts, around two dozen workers at Respawn lost their jobs. Since then, EA has restructured BioWare, moving developers to other projects internally and laying off another unknown number of key individuals.
IGN has reached out to Electronic Arts for remark.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can discover her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].