Apex Legends director Chad Grenier announces departure from Respawn

On Friday Respawn Entertainment released a note from Apex Legends director Chad Grenier announcing his departure from the studio. Grenier is one of the co-founders of Respawn and had been with the studio for 11 years. Apex Legends lead Steven Ferreira will replace him as the game’s director.

“I can’t think of anyone better than Steven Ferreira to take over as the game director and make sure it’s done right,” Grenier wrote in his announcement. “At Respawn, we’ve always believed that new leadership and new team members mean new ideas, new energy, and new innovations. This couldn’t be a more accurate statement to describe Steven’s many contributions over the years.”

Chad Grenier leaves Respawn

Grenier has a strong FPS pedigree, with titles such as Call of Duty and Call of Duty Modern Warfare on his resume. He started in the games industry in 2002 when he left the modding community to work on what would eventually become Call of Duty. Grenier went on to join Respawn in 2010 to work on the Titanfall series and eventually Apex Legends.

Ferreira, Grenier’s successor, is an EA alumnus having worked as both a producer and design director there. He had a seven year stint between these EA positions at United Front Games, the developer behind Sleeping Dogs. Ferriera was both a designer and design director during his time at United Front.

The former Apex director has not announced where or what his next position will be at the time of writing. But, he emphasized that the Respawn team will always have a special place in his heart.

“It will probably be tough to see the game continue to thrive and succeed in my absence, but that’s a good thing. So, I’m looking forward to the great things this team will achieve as they take Apex to the next level and further than we thought was possible when this journey first started. You can bet I’ll be cheering from the sidelines along the way.”