Electronic Arts has reportedly canceled an in-development Respawn Entertainment single-player game set in the Apex Legends and Titanfall universe. The launch of Apex Legends proved to be a major shift for Respawn Entertainment's development focus, as it left behind its Titanfall single-player/multiplayer titles in favor of the successful battle royale. Respawn has since proven its single-player talents are worth supporting with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, but EA may not be fully persuaded.Reports of a new single-player game being worked on at Respawn that wasn't part of its ongoing Star Wars projects began to be shared in 2022. Job listings for what was referred to as an "Apex Universe FPS Incubation Project" began to pop up. A departing developer later confirmed that they had been contributing to Respawn's "single-player Apex universe game." An official announcement that the game was in development was never made, however.RELATED: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Gets Hit with DelayBloomberg's Jason Schreier is now reporting that EA has canceled the unannounced Apex Legends single-player game. No explanation for the cancelation was provided, though the report does note EA is making cuts following a "disappointing outlook" for the current financial quarter. The project's codename is said to be Titanfall Legends and it was started under the direction of Call of Duty, Titanfall, and Apex Legends veteran Mohammad Alavi, who left Respawn in early 2022.

Around 50 developers were working on the Apex Legends single-player game at the time of its cancelation. The report indicates that EA will try and find positions for these developers on other projects, but that those that the publisher is unable to accommodate will be provided severance packages and laid off. In other words, this isn't just the cancelation of a single game but also the end of an effort to build another single-player-focused team at Respawn.

Respawn Entertainment has been an unfortunate focus for EA's recent cuts. The publisher is also closing down Respawn's Apex Legends mobile port. Given Respawn's overall success, both with Apex Legends and its single-player Star Wars efforts, it's surprising to see EA choose to focus on the studio for cuts. It certainly implies that EA isn't confident in Apex Legends' future and is pulling back from future investment.

The news will be especially disappointing to fans of the two Titanfall games. While both Titanfall and Titanfall 2 were not incredibly successful projects, at least compared to Apex Legends, they have a devoted fanbase that has been asking for Titanfall 3 for years. Even if the newly canceled Apex Legends single-player title was only loosely tied to Titanfall, it would certainly have been warmly embraced by this community. Regardless, both Apex Legends and Titanfall fans will almost certainly begin pushing for another Respawn single-player title with renewed vigor.

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