Working on the hit Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was a noticeable change of pace for developer Respawn Entertainment. It’s the only game in the studio’s catalog that doesn’t fall into the first-person shooter genre, branching off from the likes of Titanfall and Apex Legends. Studio lead Vince Zampella wants to prove that Respawn can do more than just first-person shooters, opening up to other genres in the future.
Speaking with USgamer, Zampella said:
It’s about showing that we’re more than just a one trick pony. Like we’ve done a lot of multiplayer, first-person shooter games; we’re kind of pigeonholed in there.
This is about expanding who we are. ‘Cause as game makers, we’re all super unique. We’re all interested in so many different types of games that we play by ourselves, together. So it’s getting that out there that we’re here because we love games. We live, eat, breathe games, and we’re trying to show the breadth of what we can do, so it was super important for me to really expand that.
Despite not being known for third-person action games, the team garnered praise for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. It became the studio’s bestselling game at over 8 million copies sold and enjoyed critical praise across the board. Even though the team wants to expand beyond first-person shooters, it will still be heavily supporting its popular battle royale FPS, Apex Legends—and plans to do so for the next 10 years.
Other than ongoing support for Apex, the studio hasn’t publicly announced what it will be working on for current and next-generation consoles going forward. It’s not out of the question to expect more games outside the FPS genre, based on Zampella’s quote about wanting to expand, and we likely haven’t seen the last of Jedi: Fallen Order considering its strong sales. A recent job listing on the company’s website that requests those who are “passionate about the Star Wars Universe and is invigorated by the idea of coding third-person action/adventure games,” which definitely suggests they aren’t done exploring the genre.
[Source: USgamer]
