The former director of Star Wars Jedi, Stig Asmussen, founded a new development studio with Giant Skull after leaving Respawn Entertainment – and is taking a number of former Respawn employees with him.
Last fall, Stig Asmussen made a name for himself when he left his position as game director at Respawn Entertainment and left the developer studio of publisher Electronic Arts. There he was in charge of the work on the two games in the successful Star Wars Jedi game series and left a correspondingly large gap.
Now it is known what will happen next for Asmussen: He quickly founded his own new development studio, Giant Skull – and he is taking all sorts of former developers from Respawn Entertainment with him. The new studio sees itself as a developer of AAA titles in the action-adventure genre – with a focus on the narrative single-player experience. This isn't necessarily surprising considering Asmussen's experience, which includes several titles in the God of War franchise in addition to the two Star Wars Jedi games. He remains true to his previous genre – and considering the quality of the titles that were created under his direction, that's by no means a bad thing.
Future Giant Skull games will be based on Unreal Engine 5, although a debut project was initially not officially announced; So concrete details about a first work from Giant Skull still remain to be seen.
What is certain is that numerous other veterans of the gaming industry will be there to help Asmussen. A number of developers have followed him from Respawn Entertainment, and there are also other veterans on board who previously worked for Epic Games, Riot Games or Rocksteady Games. These include Jon Carr (Technical Director of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor), Patrick Murphy (Art Director who worked on Fortnite, Valorante and League of Legends), Lauren McLemore (Lead Producer of Fortnite), Jeff Magers (Design Director of Star Wars Jedi) and Brian Campbell (Animation Director at Epic Games).
In his announcement statement, Asmussen emphasizes that they have put together a talented team to draw attention to themselves in the future through immersive storytelling, heroic combat and rich universes. As far as the still nameless and unannounced debut film is concerned, according to COO Anthony Scott, they are creating “something really special”.
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