After it was announced in September last year that Stig Asmussen, the director behind Respawn Entertainment’s beloved Star Wars third-person action adventure titles, Jedi: Survivor and Jedi: Fallen Order as well as Santa Monica Studio’s God of War III, was leaving his position at EA, the renowned developer has revealed his next venture – a brand-new AAA studio dubbed Giant Skull.
The studio is said to be dedicated to “building gameplay-driven, story immersed action-adventure games set in captivating worlds,” leveraging Asmussen’s decades of experience along with the wider team taking up its headquarters in Los Angeles and remote talent from around the world.
Other industry figures joining the studio will be Jon Carr (Star Wars Jedi: Survivor), Patrick Murphy (Fortnite), Lauren McLemore (Fortnite), Jeff Magers (Star Wars Jedi: Survivor), Brian Campbell (Fortnite) and Anthony Scott (Arkham Series).
“The Giant Skull studio culture is founded on creativity and curiosity,” says Asmussen in an accompanying press release. “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.”
“Our values for the studio translate into how we make our games and our relationship with players – autonomy, momentum, curiosity and respect,” adds Anthony Scott, Giant Skull’s CFO/COO. “We want players to join us on every step of this amazing journey, as we pave the way for our upcoming game. 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.”
An official website for the studio has already been set up, and looks especially striking in setting up a vision for the team’s output. There are even some hidden interactions to be found using inputs like “CAT GIANT_SKULL.TXT” or “GAME.”
