What you need to know
- Gravity Well is a new independent studio founded by Respawn Entertainment veterans Drew McCoy and Jon "Slothy" Shiring.
- They are aiming to build a team around 80-85 people at peak, while still developing AAA games.
- Gravity Well is developing games exclusively for next-generation hardware and PCs.
Since its acquisition by Electronic Arts in 2017, Respawn Entertainment has been delivering critically-acclaimed games including Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Meanwhile, Respawn co-founder Vince Zampella is now studio head of both Respawn and DICE L.A, the latter of which will soon be renamed.
Still, with some of its members leaving, opportunity emerges and now, there's an exciting new independent studio on the scene. Gravity Well is a completely new team founded by some Respawn Entertainment veterans, including former Executive Producer Drew McCoy and Jon Shiring.
"We are starting a studio because of how we want to make games. We want time to iterate on everything and get ideas and feedback from the whole team. We're building this studio to last for decades, and that doesn't happen without putting the team first," McCoy explained. "We take team health as an absolute top priority. That means we are anti-crunch. That means good compensation. That means everyone at Gravity Well has creative freedom, because when someone else makes all of the decisions, work isn't fun and the end product isn't as good."
Shiring explained that "We're going to build a team that is 80-85 people at peak" and that "...once your team size crosses 100 people, everything changes." Gravity Well is setting up for remote work given the ongoing pandemic and is now taking job applications. Gravity Well is also setting out to build games exclusively for next-generation hardware and PCs.
Given how the team is just now beginning to hire, it'll probably be some time before we see its first game. If you're interested in following Gravity Well, you can check out the official Twitter account here.
