Respawn boss Ryan Burnett shines a light on the game dev potential of Wisconsin

gamedeveloper.com:

Back in March, Electronic Arts subsidiary Respawn Entertainment opened up a satellite studio in Madison, Wisconsin to bolster development on Apex Legends. As the company noted at the time, its new office wasn't established as a pure support studio—it's a third arm of the game development team behind the company's juggernaut sci-fi Battle Royale.

Earlier today studio director Ryan Burnett—who leads Respawn's third office—delivered a keynote at midwestern video game conference M+DEV arguing that the state is primed to be "the new epicenter" of video game development in the United States. Burnett is a lifelong Wisconsinite who previously worked at Epic Games and Raven Software. He might be a bit biased in his support for the home of the Green Bay Packers—but he's also passionate in explaining to developers about why they should pay close attention to the region.

Burnett spoke with Game Developer in advance of his keynote to offer more context on Wisconsin's potential as a hub for game development—and offered some thoughts about how studios can successfully set up new shops in such areas themselves.

Whenever game industry hubs pop up in less-traveled locales, a few obvious factors are usually at play. There's usually a lower cost of living, lower real estate cost on studio space, and a pool of talent that's untapped in video games.

That's all true for Wisconsin—though Burnett pointed out that Wisconsin's hub of programming and creative talent isn't exactly "untapped." Krafton, Epic Games, Zenimax, and Activision Blizzard also have offices in the area, meaning that plenty of studios are recruiting and training developers who might eventually be interested in changing jobs within the area. Madison is also regarded as a "college