Xbox studio hires Apex Legends weapon designer

New Xbox studio The Initiative has made Apex Legends’ weapon designer the latest recruit to its growing development team.

The Initiative is a first-party Xbox game studio based in Santa Monica, California. The company was announced in June 2018, with a mandate to create “ambitious and innovative game experiences” for Xbox.

Sean Slayback was most recently principal weapons designer at Respawn, for which he designed and implemented weapons and was responsible for all player-facing aspects of weapon feel, including recoil and handling.

Slayback also worked on Titanfall 1 & 2, plus various Call of Duty titles including Modern Warfare 2. At The Initiative, he is now the studio’s lead systems designer.

Slackback joins a host of experienced talent at the Xbox startup, including game director Daniel Neuburger, who was a game director on the Tomb Raider series, and lead designer Drew Murray, who held the same role on Insomniac’s Sunset Overdrive.

The Initiative has also hired a group of God of War designers. The studio’s director of production, Brian Westergaard, also worked on God of War as senior managing producer.

According to LinkedIn, the company currently stands at around 35 staff and is advertising a further 18 vacant positions, including for art director and lead producer.

Given the experience of its staff on series like Tomb Raider, God of War and Uncharted, it’s likely that The Initiative is staffing up for a third-person action game.

The company is part of a new drive at Xbox to significantly expand its portfolio of first-party studios.

As well as setting up The Initiative and a new Age of Empires studio, Xbox has recently acquired the likes of Ninja Theory (Hellblade), Playground (Forza Horizon), Obsidian (Fallout: New Vegas), InXile (Wasteland 3) and Double Fine (Psychonauts 2).

Xbox’s Initiative Dev Team (Nov 2019)