An Apex Legends developer has come out with a response to an inquiring fan on the /r/ApexLegends subreddit regarding the development of the game and the addition of new features.
One Redditor had complained about the accidentally-implemented Leaver Penalty was a particularly troublesome issue considering that some players would have to drop onto the island with less than a full team. Respawn Entertainment developer Scriptacus responded that the penalty was never applied if you didn’t have a full team, prompting another Redditor to inquire if the developers were ever going to implement solo queues.
In response to this second question, Apex Legends developer Scriptacus responded with a lengthier post explaining the situation on the ground at Respawn Entertainment and why developers in general are reluctant to comment on upcoming features. The response opened by saying that there are far too many things for developers to work on and not enough resources to get those things done; as such, developers have to prioritize what they work on.
Additionally, Scriptacus stated that developers are unlikely to comment on upcoming features, largely because some people may take those statements as an unofficial announcement:
“I’ll give you my somewhat cynical take on how this stuff tends to go. If I were to say ‘Yes, feature X will come to the game someday.’, (aside from instantly becoming a promise, which we are now obligated to add) it would likely get picked up by blogs and gaming news sites, posted as ‘Respawn says X is coming to Apex’, and depending on how those articles are written, they’re going to set expectations incorrectly for a lot of people.
Eventually, people would talk about how Respawn ‘announced X ages ago’, saying that it’s taking too long, or speculating about why it has been delayed. A lot of this can be helped by careful wordsmithing, but even that can be taken out of context, or misquoted like a bad game of telephone, leading to the same issues. So I leave that to those whose job it is, and post what I can, when I can, in my free time (hello Sunday afternoon).”
This particular Apex Legends developer is understandably cautious about talking about behind-the-scenes info. Considering how often an off-handed statement can blow up into a rumor (or something more intense than that), it probably is indeed unwise for game developers to get into specifics without being authorized to do so. Don’t expect Apex Legends to show its hand too soon in future if that’s the case.
