Drew McCoy, one of the original founding members of Respawn and the Executive Producer of Apex Legends, announced today that he will be leaving the studio. McCoy has been with Respawn for ten years, and was a key producer for most of its major releases, including both Titanfall games. He was one of the most senior figures in the development of Apex Legends, the studio’s highly-successful battle royale title.
Drew McCoy’s History with Respawn
McCoy announced his departure from Respawn today via social media. “Today marks the start of a new adventure for me,” he posted on Twitter; “I will absolutely cherish the last 10 years I spent helping start Respawn and ship some awesome games alongside amazing people. I’ll miss the people the most – the daily arguments, successes, failures, and everything inbetween.”
Prior to working at Respawn, McCoy was employed by Infinity Ward. In 2010, he left the studio along with Vince Zampella, Jason West, and several others and founded Respawn. In his role at the new studio, he was Titanfall’s lead producer, then Senior Producer for Titanfall 2. (Our pick for the best FPS game of this entire console generation.) After that, he became the Executive Producer for Apex Legends, overseeing much of the game’s creative direction and development. While it’s not altogether uncommon to see senior developers move from studio to studio in-between game releases, the departure of a founding member who had worked at the studio for a decade is much more significant.
At present, it’s not known what McCoy plans to do next, or what his reasons were for leaving Respawn. However, he suggested online that he would be continuing to work in gaming in the future. “For everyone who played our games,” he wrote; “thank you from the bottom of my heart. Not sure where I’m going yet, but rest assured I can’t stay away from games for long.”