Stig Asmussen, the director behind EA’s Star Wars Jedi games, has announced the launch of a new studio called Giant Skull.
Announced today (March 12), Giant Skull is based in Los Angeles and working on a AAA-scope “single-player focused action adventure” using Unreal Engine 5.
Asmussen, who directed Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and last year’s sequel Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, will serve as the studio’s CEO. Several developers from Fortnite studio Epic Games are also joining Asmussen, including art director Patrick Murphy, animation director Brian Campbell, and lead producer Lauren McLemore.
“The Giant Skull studio culture is founded on creativity and curiosity,” said Asmussen in a press release. “We have assembled a talented team renowned for immersive storytelling, heroic combat and exhilarating traversal, and our goal is to craft a rich universe that players will want to lose themselves in for years to come.”
Giant Skull COO/CFO Anthony Scott, former director of operations at Rocksteady Studios, said that the studio will value “autonomy, momentum, curiosity, and respect,” and praised his fellow leadership team.
“We’re creating something special and have been fortunate enough to assemble an incredible initial team of developers who are extremely passionate and experienced in creating genre-defining, third person action-adventures,” he shared.
As for Asmussen, he left EA “after careful thought and consideration” in September 2023. NME gave his final game at EA, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, five stars in a glowing review.
We described Survivor as “perhaps the best action game of the generation so far,” and praised its world-building and sense of adventure.
Outside of EA, Asmussen is best known for his work on Sony‘s God Of War series. The developer served as lead environment artist for the first God Of War, moving up to art director for its sequel before directing 2010’s God Of War 3.
Elsewhere in gaming, former PlayStation chief Shawn Layden has discussed the “importance” of making platform-exclusive games.