Damn, waking up to this news hit me like a ton of bricks. 😭 Respawn Entertainment – the geniuses behind Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi – just axed another two projects and laid off around 100 devs. It's deja vu from their 2023 bloodbath, but somehow cuts deeper now. Seeing that official tweet announcing they're 'stepping away from incubation projects' while my coffee went cold... man, it stings. These aren't just numbers; they're artists, designers, QA testers – people who breathe life into our favorite virtual worlds. And knowing EA's offering internal transfers feels like putting a band-aid on a lightsaber wound. 💔
So what got vaporized? 🔥 First, that mysterious multiplayer FPS – the spiritual successor to the canceled Mandalorian game. Imagine: the team that dreamed up jetpack bounty hunters got reassigned to this, only to get gutted again. The second casualty? A Titanfall extraction shooter codenamed 'R7'. Extraction shooters are HOT right now (thanks DMZ), so killing this feels like sabotaging their own golden ticket. IGN says devs got scattered to EA Motive’s Iron Man or Battlefield studios, but man... losing Respawn’s magic touch to corporate reshuffling? Oof.
Let’s talk Titanfall. ⚡️ My hands still remember gripping that controller for Titanfall 2’s campaign back in 2016 – that time-bending level design? BT’s sarcastic quips? Pure art. And now? We’ve had nothing but Apex Legends crumbs (great game, but NOT Titanfall). R7 was our first real hope in nearly a decade for something NEW in that universe. An extraction shooter with wall-running mechs? I’d sell my kidney for that! Bloomberg calling it ‘abandoned’ feels like mourning a friend.
The studio’s future hinges on three pillars now:
Project | Status & My Take |
---|---|
Apex Legends | Promised 'innovative expansions' – but how? |
Star Wars Jedi sequel | Safe bet, but will it feel rushed? 🤔 |
Star Wars Zero Company | Collab with Bit Reactor – wildcard potential! |
Respawn swears they’re doubling down on Apex. 'Expanding what it can be' sounds cool... but after scrapping R7, it rings hollow. Are we just getting more $20 recolored skins instead of bold new worlds? And don’t get me started on Titanfall 3 – this massacre just buried those dreams six feet deep. 💀
So here I am, staring at my Titanfall 2 poster. 😔 Respawn shaped my gaming soul, but these cuts... they’re more than spreadsheets. They’re lost stories, unseen mechs, unmade galaxies. When studios prioritize 'safe bets' over creative gambles, what happens to the magic? Are we doomed to live in a sequel-churning dystopia where passion projects get sacrificed for quarterly profits? 🧐 What even IS a 'targeted team adjustment' when it shatters real lives and gamer hopes? The silence from EA is deafening...