Star Wars Jedi Developer Morale is Reportedly at an 'All…

Summary

Morale at Respawn Entertainment is reportedly at an all-time low due to game cancellations and layoffs.
Respawn is still working on the sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
The next Star Wars game promises to raise the bar for storytelling and gameplay.

An upper-ranking team member at Respawn Entertainment, developer of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, has complained recently about the company's drop in morale in the wake of a game cancellation and studio closure by Respawn's parent company, EA. Respawn employees are currently working on a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which will be the third in the game series, and fans are hoping the downward morale shift won't affect that game's quality.

EA acquired Respawn Entertainment in December 2017, at a time when the developer was fully focused on the Titanfall franchise. Since the acquisition, Respawn has headed the celebrated Star Wars Jedi action-adventure series and has also been responsible for the successful battle royale hero shooter Apex Legends, which launched in 2019 and continues to see peak player counts of around 200,000 in 2025.

Earlier this week, EA canceled its planned Black Panther game and shut down its developer, Cliffhanger Games, in a round of layoffs that is reported to have affected fewer than 300 employees. Word of the cancellation and studio closure reached Patrick Wren, senior encounter designer at Respawn Entertainment, who responded to the events on Bluesky by stating simply that morale has reached an "all-time low." In an unattached post to his own Bluesky page, Wren said, "I am just sorry for everyone who just wants to make cool video games in this industry." He later confirmed the subject matter of that post was related to EA's closure of Cliffhanger Games.

Respawn Entertainment's Morale is Reportedly Bottoming Out

Morale has been at an all-time low. I can say that much. — Patrick Wren (@witdarkstar.bsky.social) 2025-05-28T18:47:18.116Z

While Wren's recent post showed sympathy for the former employees of a now-defunct sister developer, Respawn Entertainment suffered layoffs of its own earlier this year. Reports on that round of job cuts, which occurred in late April, estimate that roughly 100 employees were let go following the cancellation of two different video game projects. Both games were reportedly quite early in their development and had not yet been announced, but one appears to have been planned as a multiplayer first-person-shooter, and details are even more scarce on the other canceled project.

Despite EA's recent layoffs at multiple developers, an update on the next Star Wars Jedi game, revealed just after news broke about the late-April layoffs, confirmed that Respawn is still working on it. A Twitter post that seemed intended to quell fears about the developer's future included just one sentence regarding the upcoming game, stating that it would "raise the bar again for storytelling and gameplay." The same post showed promise for Apex Legends' future, forecasting creative new seasons and an expansion of its in-game systems.

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