Respawn's Creative Director Is Leaving EA

gamerant.com:

Game developer and Creative Director at Respawn Entertainment, Ryan Lastimosa, is officially leaving the studio and EA. The makers of Titanfall and Apex Legends have been going through a tricky period with Respawn cutting down some of its projects to put more focus on its battle royale and other projects like Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. Now, with the departure of the studio's Creative Director, the coming months look to be an interesting time for Respawn.

Earlier this year, the company scrapped Apex Legends mobile along with an unannounced Apex Legends single-player game that was rumored to offer deeper connections to Titanfall. This change in direction partly meant that Respawn was doubling down on optimizing Apex Legends in its upcoming seasons. Its efforts already appear to be paying off as the battle royale recorded a new all-time peak player count on Steam with Season 16, an impressive feat considering it's the first season that didn't debut a new character.

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Tweeting via his personal account, Respawn's Creative Director Ryan Lastimosa stated that he will be exiting Respawn after serving the studio for 13 years. Over the years, Lastimosa, has played a key role in designing some of the most iconic weapons in Apex Legends such as the highly-popular R-301, R-99, Kraber, and the Longbow. His name is also included in the game as Lastimosa Armory, the fictional in-game production facility these guns were made. Fans might also recall the former Creative Director's name from Titanfall 2 as the character captain Lastimosa.

Lastimosa's departure comes at a time when EA is reportedly laying off over 200 Apex Legends QA testers. The layoffs are said to be centralized within