The first-person shooter market has been dominated by the same names for a good few decades now. Halo, Call of Duty, and Battlefield are among the first games that spring to mind when gamers think of the first-person shooter genre, but that hasn’t stopped other developers from trying to make a name for themselves in the same market. While countless developers fail to gain recognition, Respawn Entertainment has managed to stand out from the crowd, and grow exponentially.
Founded by ex-Infinity Ward devs that played a large role in creating Call of Duty, Respawn Entertainment may be a fairly new game development studio, but it’s had skin in the game for quite some time. It’s rare that a studio’s first game hits the mainstream, but Titanfall managed to do exactly that, and then some. Today, after a Titanfall sequel, a battle royale, and Star Wars game, Respawn Entertainment is getting poised to take over the industry like never before, with at least four games currently in development.
Respawn’s In-Progress Star Wars Projects
2019 was a pretty massive year for Respawn Entertainment. At the beginning of the year, Respawn released its Titanfall battle royale spinoff, Apex Legends, a game that managed to do the impossible by giving Fortnite a run for its money. Then, towards the end of the year, Respawn released its long-awaited Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a third-person action game heavily inspired by FromSoftware’s Dark Souls series, taking place five years after Revenge of the Sith.
Despite some lackluster marketing, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order became a critical and commercial hit, with audiences praising the game’s higher level of difficulty, the game’s complex and rewarding combat mechanics, and its overall plot and performances. This year, Respawn Entertainment finally confirmed that it’s currently working on a direct sequel titled Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
While a sequel was heavily rumored for quite some time, Respawn’s official confirmation came in January of this year, with a title reveal and first trailer debuting in May. Though the trailer doesn’t reveal too much, it does give fans their first look at an older Cal Kestis as he fights off a red lightsaber-wielding foe, and stares at a Bacta Tank occupied by an unknown character. Virtually no details about Jedi: Survivor have been released yet, only that it’s set five years after the events of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Presumably, the sequel will retain most of the gameplay mechanics seen in its predecessor, albeit with some new features thrown in, with a possible feature being the use of a blaster, teased by the Hasbro Cal Kestis figure.
Along with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Respawn Entertainment is also working on another two Star Wars titles for Lucasfilm Games. Also announced back in January of this year, Respawn is working on a brand new first-person shooter set in the Star Wars universe. No details have been given yet, but the game seems to be in safe hands, with Peter Hirschmann at the helm. A LucasArts veteran, Hirschmann worked on the original Star Wars: Battlefront games, and The Force Unleashed, along with other popular FPS franchises like Medal of Honor. Hirschmann’s expertise in both the FPS genre and the Star Wars license make him the perfect choice to lead this project.
Respawn Entertainment is also currently assisting with another Star Wars title, this time a strategy game. While Bit Reactor is taking the lead developer role in this project, Respawn is apparently helping on the title, and it’ll eventually be the studio that publishes the game. While this Star Wars strategy game is Bit Reactor’s first title, fans shouldn’t be too worried, as the studio is made up of old Firaxis developers, who have previously worked on XCOM and Civilization. With Respawn’s seal of quality, this Star Wars strategy title could end up filling a pretty sizable niche in the current gaming market.
Every Other Respawn Project Currently In Development
As a fairly large developer with several studios across North America, Respawn Entertainment also has plenty of other projects on the go that don’t come from a galaxy far, far away. One of the developer’s biggest projects is still Apex Legends, its ongoing live-service battle royale. Though it released in 2019, Apex Legends‘ development is never done, as is the case with any successful live-service title. Respawn is still hard at work on adding new maps, weapons, Legends, game modes, and cosmetics, with its entire Vancouver studio focused solely on Apex Legends‘ continual development.
Back in July of this year, Respawn also indirectly announced that it was working on a brand new single-player game set in Apex Legends‘ universe. Discovered via some job listings, this new project is described as an “Apex universe FPS incubation title,” with express mentions that the project will be single-player focused. Despite being the origin of Apex Legends and being the same universe, it’s unlikely that this single-player project is a long sought-after Titanfall sequel, since the studio has reportedly left that part of the franchise behind for now.
Just a few months before those job listings surfaced, a report from Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb suggested that Respawn was working on a brand new single-player title, set in a “unique universe.” It’s currently unclear whether this Apex single-player spinoff is the same single-player project, or whether that’s an altogether new IP that Respawn Entertainment just hasn’t announced yet.