Apex Legends developer Respawn canceled an incubation project this week and fired an unknown number of individuals working on it in the process.
The news was first reported by Insider Gaming, procuring a LinkedIn post not currently available from a former production coordinator who wrote, “The unpublished incubation project I had been involved in for the past year has been cancelled this week, so I have joined a group of extremely talented and kind people in the gaming industry looking for a new role.”
Passthecontroller was able to independently confirm that Respawn had cancelled an unpublished incubation project. Passthecontroller understands that this is a multiplayer FPS (at least one job was listed last year). Members of an internal team who previously worked on Star Wars FPS at Respawn cancelled last year. Passthecontroller can also confirm that many individuals have been fired as part of the cancellation. Although we cannot confirm the exact number, it is characterized as “small” by sources familiar with the project. Passthecontroller also identified at least one individual connected to a project that made clear on LinkedIn that their departure was voluntary.
This continues the ongoing trend of cancelled projects, layoffs and restructurings across the EA, eliminating 50 jobs at Bioware in 2023 and Codemasters excluded unknown numbers. Culling continued almost a year ago when the company fired 670 workers across the company and closed several projects, including the aforementioned Star Wars FPS. As part of these cuts, around 20 workers in Respawn lost their jobs. Since then, EA has rebuilt Bioware, moving developers internally to other projects, and firing another unknown number of key individuals.
Passthecontroller reached out to electronic arts for comment.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter at Passthecontroller. You can find her posts at Bluesky @Duckvalentine.bsky.social. Do you have any tips for the story? Send to [email protected].
