The lead programmer explains that the late release was due to his personal affairs with the adoption of his daughter.
Apex Legends was launched by surprise, on February 4, 2019, at a few hours not very usual. Why was this done? Jon Shiring, the main programmer of the video game, has clarified it in a Twitter thread. According to his words, at that time he was immersed in the process of adopting his daughter. Faced with this situation, the leaders of Respawn Entertainment were understanding, since according to points, they prioritized their family situation before the launch of their battle royale.
“It was planned for that morning, and then my court date to finalize the adoption came. The courts chose February 4 at 10 a.m., the same time as the launch of Apex Legends. I panicked. As he ran the team’s online services operations, this was a bad thing. ” Drew McCoy, already a former Respawn Entertainment, as well as the rest of the team were clear: “They delayed the secret launch of the game so that I could attend the court appointment.” Then, as soon as he finished, he returned to the office and completed the launch with his colleagues.
“It was an incredible morning for my family and me. “This is why Apex Legends launched at a strange time, around lunchtime on February 4, 2019, because Respawn prioritized my family earlier.”
And that’s why Apex launched at a strange time, around lunch on February 4, 2019. Because @Respawn prioritized my family first.
– ░〚GW〛 Jon ‘slothy’ Shiring ░ (@jonshiring) October 8, 2020
Respawn wants to remove the crunch
Despite accusations of crunch during the coronavirus pandemic, the study defended itself and assured that they took the mental health of their workers very seriously. In addition, McCoy himself stressed that as a developer they planned to eliminate crunching practices “which can lead to rapid deterioration. [del personal] or worse”. For this reason, they made a commitment not to accelerate the updates to avoid falling into labor exploitation.
Apex Legends is a free-to-play game available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The next release will be on Nintendo Switch, at which point the long-awaited cross-play functionality will also be activated.
