Stig Asmussen, formerly of Respawn and Sony, goes indie with new Giant Skull studio.
The game director of the Star Wars Jedi titles, Stig Asmussen, has formed a new independent studio – with its first project already in the works.
Based in Los Angeles (although staff are said to be global), Giant Skull will see Asmussen assume the role of CEO following his nine-year stint at Respawn Entertainment.
He also spent over a decade at Sony, acting as art director on God of War 2 and creative director on God of War 3.
Most recently, he finished up work on Star Wars Jedi: Survivor in April 2023.
The studio’s first game is described as a “AAA single-player-focused action adventure” that will be “story immersed” and built in Unreal Engine 5.
It’s currently untitled and few details were shared outside of Giant Skull’s plans to focus on single-player experiences.
What we do know is that around 30 people have been employed so far, several of them from Respawn, such as its CTO Jon Carr and design director Jeff Mangers.
Speaking on the talent recruited, Asmussen stated: “The Giant Skull studio culture is founded on creativity and curiosity. We have assembled a talented team renowned for immersive storytelling, heroic combat and exhilarating traversal, and our goal is to craft a rich universe that players will want to lose themselves in for years to come.”
Several names from Epic Games have also made the move. Patrick Murphy has been hired as the art director, Lauren McLemore is the lead producer and Brian Campbell is the animation director – all three have worked on Fortnite at some point.
“We want players to join us on every step of this amazing journey, as we pave the way for our upcoming game,” said Anthony Scott, who will act as COO/CFO of Giant Skull. Prior to this appointment, he headed up Unbroken Studios and acted as the director of operations at Rocksteady.
“We’re creating something special, and have been fortunate enough to assemble an incredible initial team of developers who are extremely passionate and experienced in creating genre-defining, third-person action adventures,” Scott added.
The studio confirmed (via IGN) that it has yet to decide whether it will partner with a first-party platform or remain completely independent: “We’ve secured significant funding. It’s sufficient to support our vision. But at the same time we’ll explore partnership opportunities with global publishers when the time comes.”
No release date or timeline was provided for Giant Skull’s first release. Don’t expect it anytime soon, with game development on AAA projects usually taking a minimum of three years.
The news comes in the wake of hundreds of layoffs at publisher EA, which is the owner of Respawn.
The move also meant a new first-person shooter set in the Star Wars universe was cancelled by the studio.
This followed layoffs at Xbox, PlayStation, Unity, Riot, Sega, Eidos-Montreal, Supermassive Games and dozens of other game developers, resulting in thousands of workers in the industry looking for new jobs.
Giant Skull has several job openings on its LinkedIn page.
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