EA's Respawn studio has set up a third outpost in Madison, Wisconsin.

In an announcement on the company's website, it says that the venture is being headed up by Ryan Burnett (pictured) as studio director. He is a veteran of Epic Games and Activision's Raven Software. Speaking to GI.biz, Burnett says that the new Madison office is going to be working hand-in-hand with Respawn's studios in LA and Vancouver.

"Wisconsin is quickly becoming a central development hub here," Burnett said. "I've been here a long time working on FPS games, so we think there's a really good hotbed of talent here we can pull from."

He continued: "When I look at the Apex franchise, I think it's one of the best out there. The gameplay, the movement and the gunplay are nothing like anything else out there. We’re best in class when you look at other battle royale competitors in terms of movement and gameplay. The other thing we do really well is there's a deep story, lore and history with all the Legends we have.

"When I was looking at this, I saw nothing but opportunity and growth and that excited me. And given my past experience, I felt I could come in and build a team that has a strong impact on this franchise and really helps it grow in the future."

Apex Legends director Steven Ferreira added: "Building the live service of Apex is a constant cycle of trying new things and experimenting, and that's what Wisconsin is going to give us – that capacity to do more of that, pushing into new area like Legend classes and trying to do things we haven't done before.

"There's two kinds of key pieces there: one is obviously the capacity part of it and helping us to build up our team structure to do that, but the other is new perspectives and ideas. Folks with different experiences and different backgrounds are something we're always looking at."

Ferreira also says that Apex Legends is going to be here "for the long haul."

"We believe in Apex as a franchise that's going to be around for 10, 15 years or more and we're excited to make that happen," he said.

"In order to do that, we can't just put everything all upfront, burn ourselves out and not be ready to do that in the long haul."

This news comes in the wake of EA closing down Apex Legends Mobile, as well as a single-player spin-off of both Titanfall and Apex Legends.