Star Wars Jedi: Survivor director has departed the franchise and EA in shock move

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is the sequel to the critically acclaimed 2019 game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

The 2019 game, developed by Respawn Entertainment, takes place after the events of Order 66 from Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. It tells the story of a Jedi Padawan named Cal Kestis, who is in hiding from the Galactic Empire. However, when fate draws its card, Cal lets himself be known and thus begins the Empire's hunt to exterminate one of the last remaining Jedi in the galaxy.

Check out the Star Wars Jedi: Survivor trailer below!

The sequel, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, takes place about five years after the events of Fallen Order and to avoid spoilers, I won’t talk about plot details in the article. As reported by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier though, Respawn Entertainment’s Stig Asmussen has left the company in a shock move. Asmussen is one of the industry's most well-known video game developers, having begun his career with Midway in 1999.

In 2003, Asmussen joined Sony Computer Entertainment and worked on the likes of the God of War series, as well as 2011’s Mortal Kombat. Asmussen would later depart from Sony in 2014 to join EA’s Respawn Entertainment and is said to be partly responsible for helping to return Star Wars video games into the good graces of fans following the Star Wars Battlefront II loot box controversy. Asmussen also worked as a director on Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.

“After careful thought and consideration, Stig Asmussen has decided to leave Respawn to pursue other adventures, and we wish him the best of luck,” a representative of Respawn told Bloomberg.

During an interview with IGN in May 2023, Asmussen revealed that he refused extra development time offered by EA to iron out any kinks that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor may have to avoid releasing closer to the likes of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. This would later prove to be a controversial decision after the game was considered to have been released in a poor state which resulted in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor being review-bombed by fans.

At this time, the exact reasons for Stig Asmussen’s departure remain unclear. Hopefully, he departed Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment on good terms. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for the developer and what he will work on next. Only time will tell.

In our review of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, we called it “an exceptional sequel, improving on every gripe fans had with Fallen Order while adding countless new features that'll keep players engrossed for a long, long time. It’ll take something really special to come out to stop Survivor being the best action/adventure game of 2023."

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is out now on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.