Respawn details his plan to preserve the cool legends of Apex, while avoiding employee burnout

The Battle Royale game by Respawn Entertainment Apex Legends got out of the door with a blow. Now that the initial excitement has slowed down, the development studio has released a roadmap for the future. His goal is to please the players, but also to avoid the tightening and exhaustion of employees.

When Mountain peak Released in February, it was suddenly the hottest thing everyone was playing – including me, a person who does not generally like competitive games. Its fast gameplay, its inventive and varied characters and its unique resurrection mechanism have brought millions of players. (Pay Ninja a million dollars to distribute it probably also helped.)

Now that Mountain peak has time to cook, the players have expressed some problems they hoped to see treated by Respawn. Cheats are rampant on the PC version of Mountain peakand the players asked for improvements to nerves and character enhancements, as well as granular changes in quality of life. The first Battle Pass of the game was repeatedly criticized by the players. They felt they did not have enough rewards, especially after the players had passed the 100 level of the pass. (Personally, I found the skins not very bright.) The players are thirsty for new content and the number of viewers Twitch has been reduced to about 40 000 simultaneous spectators, more than 300 000 at the launch. Apex Legends loses steam, although it remains quite popular

Today's blog by executive producer Dave McCoy addresses many of these issues and outlines a future development plan.

"We know that in addition to solving game-related problems, everyone is thirsty to add new content."

"Although we have made good progress towards a healthier game, as our community grows, issues that need to be addressed have been raised," he wrote. "The stability of Apex Legends is very important to us, and we have worked extensively internally to improve our processes at all levels. "

Among the existing problems named by McCoy are slow server performance at the beginning of matches, audio problems, problems recording hits and cheats. McCoy also said that Respawn would announce more details about the second Battle Pass at the EA Play fan event in June, which will take place just before E3.

About the new content, McCoy prefaced the details of the next Battle Pass with a statement about Respawn's culture. "We know that in addition to gaming issues, everyone is eager to add new content. The studio culture that we have worked hard to cultivate and the health of our team are very important, "he wrote.

"We take these things into account when we discuss our content roadmap, the production schedule and how often we can update the game. Our long-term goal is to ensure Apex Legends We always feel alive and thriving, with a focus on the quality of content rather than the novelty or speed of publication, "McCoy wrote. "At the same time, we want to maintain our culture as a development team and avoid crises that could quickly lead to exhaustion or aggravation."

The blog post comes on the heels of a report of Polygon on tightening culture at Epic Games, the developer of Mountain peakThe main competition, the gargantuan entity Fortnite. It seems like Fortnite adds daily new content to the game, resulting in brutal work hours as employees regularly pull 70 hours a week, including weekends. Some employees who refused to work on weekends were fired, according to the report.

Respawn seems determined not to make the same mistakes and not waste time working, and perhaps hopes to fix the difficult situation that some of its developers have faced in the weeks and months since Apex Legends has launched. But the demand for new Apex Legends content – more skins, characters and new additions to the meta – is in conflict with keeping the Respawn team healthy and happy. Although I like Mountain peakI know I have not played more than a few times since the Battle Pass. I felt like there were not enough new things to explore. I appreciate that Respawn is trying to set the expectations of fans, to let them know that even if changes and new content happen, they will occur at a relatively slower pace. I only fear that, even with this blog post, the endless desire for content does not aggravate the most virulent grievances.

In today's blog, McCoy pointed out that patches and updates to Apex Legends will be "significant and significant changes". This contrasts with FortniteThe approach of adding new features as often as possible.

"As we have done since launch, we will continue to handle achievements, needed shifts, bug fixes, and small features throughout the season. For total transparency, our goal is not, and has never been, to fix or update the content every week, "wrote McCoy. It is hoped that this will lead to both long-term success and a healthy and happy development team.