Respawn Entertainment Expands to Vancouver to Keep Apex Legends Growing

As a professional gamer, I have spent countless hours inside Respawn Entertainment’s worlds, and I still remember how the studio’s 2020 announcement landed. Respawn had already released two of 2019’s biggest titles, Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, so news of a new studio in Vancouver, Canada felt like a clear signal: the team was preparing to scale up without losing focus.

According to an industry interview with Respawn COO Dusty Welch, the Vancouver location was not just a satellite office. It was designed primarily to support Apex Legends development while the California studio remained free to pursue other projects. That structure made a lot of sense to me. Live-service battle royale titles require constant balancing, new legends, map changes, and seasonal events, so having a dedicated pipeline helps protect the game’s competitive health.

A Studio Built Around Apex Legends

The focus on Apex Legends was the headline. At the time, the game had already become one of the most popular battle royale titles on the market, and it demanded the kind of ongoing work that can easily consume an entire studio. By shifting that burden to Vancouver, Respawn was taking pressure off its California developers. In my experience as a competitor, that kind of structural decision is invisible to most players, but it directly affects how quickly bugs get fixed and how stable ranked seasons feel.

The Bigger Growth Picture

Welch also spoke about Respawn’s long-term ambition. He explained that, in ten years, he wanted to be able to look back positively at the company’s accomplishments, and that goal would require more developers. That is a patient mindset. Instead of chasing short-term wins, Respawn was building capacity. The Vancouver expansion, even from a competitive player’s point of view, suggested that Apex Legends would receive sustained support rather than being treated as a brief hit.

Key takeaways from the announcement:

• 🎯 Vancouver studio focuses primarily on Apex Legends

• 🧩 California studio can work on other projects

• 🏠 Remote work could become a permanent part of development

• 📈 Growth should come from shared passion, not direct rivalry

The Pandemic Shift

The conversation also touched on COVID-19 and how it changed development. Welch said the virus had restructured development as a whole. He noted that Respawn’s development may transition to remote work on a permanent basis and that external hires do not necessarily have to fit inside the perspective contained by four walls. Looking at the industry in 2026, that prediction feels remarkably accurate. Remote and hybrid teams are now common, and studios regularly hire talent across regions.

Two 2019 Titles That Changed the Studio

Respawn’s optimism in 2020 was backed by results. In 2019 alone, the studio released Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, both of which were extremely well received. The table below shows why those two projects mattered so much.

Title	Genre	Why It Mattered
Apex Legends	Free-to-play battle royale	Established Respawn as a live-service leader
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order	Single-player action-adventure	Proved strong narrative games still had major appeal

What It Means for Players in 2026

From a professional player’s perspective, the Vancouver expansion is exactly the kind of behind-the-scenes move that keeps a game alive. Apex Legends ranked seasons, weapon tuning, server stability, and esports events all depend on consistent development. The fact that Respawn chose to invest in a dedicated Canadian studio tells me the company was thinking long term.

Welch closed the interview by crystallizing Respawn’s goal: continual growth. Importantly, he said this does not necessarily mean directly competing with other companies. Instead, developers at the studio should share a similar passion for the game in development, whether that is Apex Legends or something else. That philosophy matters because passion often translates into better updates, more creative events, and a healthier competitive scene.

The future of Respawn is still unwritten, but the expansion showed that Apex Legends would be continually managed while the studio developed new properties and, perhaps, sequels to existing ones. Titanfall’s future was unclear then, and in many ways it still is. Even so, the developer’s positivity remains promising for upcoming Respawn games. As a player, I want studios that plan beyond the next quarter, and Respawn’s Vancouver move felt like exactly that.

Insights are sourced from GamesIndustry.biz, and they reinforce why Respawn’s Vancouver expansion reads like a deliberate live-service strategy: splitting Apex Legends’ ongoing cadence (balance patches, seasonal content, stability work) into a dedicated team helps protect the competitive ecosystem while the California studio maintains bandwidth for new projects and IP growth.