Respawn’s secret new FPS game has been canceled before even being announced

Respawn Entertainment’s new multiplayer FPS project has officially been canceled, confirmed by a now-former dev at the studio.

Over the past few years, Respawn, best known for Apex Legends and Titanfall, has been hiring for a new IP “Incubation Team”, with job openings explicitly asking candidates to have experience designing “Multiplayer FPS experiences.”

But, whatever they were working on has been canned, according to former Executive Assistant and Production Coordinator, Emilee Evans.

Respawn cancels unannounced FPS game

Sharing the news on LinkedIn, Evans said she had been involved with the project for the past year before its unexpected shutdown.

“The unannounced incubation project I was a part of for the past year was canceled this week,” Evans said.

This isn’t the first Respawn project to be cut before even making it to the official announcement.

A first-person shooter set in the Star Wars universe also met the chopping block in January 2024, as part of layoffs at EA. Originally announced in 2022 and helmed by veteran developer Peter Hirschmann, it had generated some buzz before EA Entertainment president Laura Miele confirmed its cancellation.

EA also made changes to other studios. Ridgeline Games, which was leading development on a single-player Battlefield campaign, was shut down.

The status of Respawn’s other in-development projects, which include a single-player game in the Apex Legends universe, is unknown. Nothing has been heard on that front in a while, as it too, remains in “incubation.”

Apex Legends is Respawn’s leading game, but has faced its own struggles over the past year, as the player count continues to dwindle.

Season 24’s release in February gave things a boost – but that gain may be short-lived, as it still fails to crack 100,000 average players on Steam, which it previously did with ease.