The director of both Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and this year’s Jedi: Survivor is departing EA after close to a decade at developers Respawn.
Stig Asmussen leaves EA five months after the release of Jedi: Survivor, the follow-up to Respawn Entertainment’s 2019 action-adventure take on the Star Wars series, Bloomberg reports.
“After careful thought and consideration, Stig Asmussen has decided to leave Respawn to pursue other adventures, and we wish him the best of luck,” said an EA representative. “Veteran Respawn leaders will be stepping up to guide the team as they continue their work on Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.”
Asmussen’s departure comes as somewhat of a surprise, not least given the success of the Jedi games and his comments to IGN earlier this year that he had “always” seen the series as a trilogy.
Both Fallen Order and Survivor were released to warm reviews and strong sales, with Fallen Order setting a new record for the fastest-selling digital launch for a Star Wars game in its first two weeks and reportedly outpacing EA’s expectations. Within two years, it had sold more than 20 million copies.
While Jedi: Survivor didn’t quite match its predecessor, it still saw enough success to top the charts and become one of the best-selling video games of 2023 at the time of its release, helping EA to a record start to the year.
Before joining Respawn as game director, Asmussen worked on the first three games in the God of War series at Santa Monica Studio, winning a BAFTA for Best Artistic Achievement for God of War 3 – on which he served as director, replacing Cory Barlog – before leaving in 2014.
