When people think of battle royale games, Fortnite and PUBG usually are first to be mentioned. However, that quickly changed when Apex Legends hit the market. This free-to-play battle royale game by Respawn Entertainment gained a cult-like following in just a short period of time.
It wasn’t long before it was receiving more viewers on Twitch than the iconic Fortnite. It was clear, Apex Legends offered something special. The graphics are some of the best of this genre, and the combat mechanics are extremely fluid. Gamers also don’t have to worry about constructing buildings to support their defenses like what is featured in Fortnite.
All that matters is working with two other teammates and taking down enemy squads. The weapons in Apex Legends are also amazing. There is a good variety to explore depending on the character class you select.
Unfortunately, Apex Legends has received some negative pushback lately. Many fans are claiming that not much content is being put out. This makes the once novel combat action pretty tiring after several weeks of continuous play.
Whereas in Fortnite, users constantly have new modes and content to explore. The developers at Epic Games even put out a mode called Endgame, which pays tribute to Avengers: Endgame. Who hasn’t wanted to play with Thanos in a video game? So why has Respawn Entertainment pumped the breaks on their content updates? Well, we finally have some clarity as executive producer Drew McCoy shared some light on the matter.
He went on to say the following in a blog post, ”Our long-term goal is to ensure Apex Legends always feels alive and thriving, with a focus on quality of content over novelty or speed of release. At the same time, we want to maintain our culture as a development team and avoid crunch that can quickly lead to burnout or worse.”
Honestly, this is a pretty good response and one that certainly makes sense if you put yourself in similar shoes. We’ve seen so many gaming companies lately try to do too much in a small time frame. This leads to worker fatigue, and ultimately, can affect game quality at launch.
Worker fatigue was certainly a problem for the creators of Red Dead Redemption 2, one of the largest open-world titles in recent memory. The grind that creative heads and developers were exposed to is tiring just thinking about.
Respawn Entertainment appears to be putting quality over quantity, which may just pay off for them in the end. Time will tell.
