An Apex Legends reconnect feature is not in development according to Respawn Entertainment. Players across all platforms had been requesting the feature for some time, but the development studio has other priorities that they would like to focus on. It’s not all bad news, though, as over 355,000 cheaters have been banned from the game since its launch.
Battle royale games like Apex Legends are focused on eliminating every single opposing player or team. The final battle of a game can come down to just two people, so the ability to disconnect and reconnect at an opportune time could easily be abused. Respawn isn’t working on an Apex Legends reconnect feature for precisely this reason. There’s also the matter of the development resources that would have to go into getting this feature working. The developers would rather use those resources on more pressing matters (like the crashes that cause the disconnects in the first place).
Opinion surrounding an Apex Legends reconnect feature on the game’s subreddit have an air of disappointment. Redditor /u/doomed151 sums up the sentiment nicely:
Reconnect not being top priority is a bummer. Do it how PUBG does it, can’t be abused that way. When someone disconnects, leave their character in-game as if they’re AFK. If the character is still alive, let the player regain control on reconnect. Otherwise let the player spectate their teammates. -/u/doomed151
Whether or not Respawn Entertainment develops a reconnect feature, they have been hard at work solving another issue: cheaters. So far, the Easy Anti-Cheat system has nabbed over 355,000 cheaters so far. That’s less than 1 percent of the entire population of the game, which now stands at well over 50 million unique accounts. Respawn Entertainment is reaching out to experts in the field and scaling up their anti-cheat team to handle the popularity of the game. A report feature is also on its way for PC players.
An Apex Legends reconnect feature won’t be coming anytime soon, but the future of the game still looks bright. If you haven’t yet hopped into the epic battle royale game, you can play it for free on PC via Origin.
