Apex Legends Ousts Lead Balance Designer Daniel Klein Over 14-Year-Old Misogynistic Blog Posts

If you're an Apex Legends player wondering what exactly is going on with the game's (former) Lead Balance Designer Daniel Klein, here's your answer. As of now, he is no longer with Respawn Entertainment. The company terminated Klein's employment with them after becoming aware of a series of posts from 2007 filled with offensive remarks.

The content in question was brought to the public eye near the end of last month on the 27th and apparently began making the rounds when YouTuber Thordan Smash posted a video discussing the posts and what might happen. There were two posts referenced in his video -- one of him making racist comments in response to a question about birds living in his beard and the other a rant on his blog about a specific woman.

This video then led to calls for Klein's termination on Reddit. It also appears to have been renamed following his termination.

Since being fired, Klein made a series of tweets discussing it and what led to it. He claims to have not actually believed any of the stuff he said in 2007, but that he was doing it to "get a reaction out of people," and that he's been working to become a better person. It's also worth noting that he was a 27 year old adult when he posted these things.

What happened to Daniel Klein. pic.twitter.com/nYc77Unchw

— Biast12 (Tobias) (@Biast12) August 10, 2021

Klein's spouse, Yonah Gerber, who also works for Respawn also published a series of tweets about the firing, stating that EA's decision will just result in more people targeting employees they don't like. They also go on to say that Klein is a "staunch ally that has done the work to improve himself" and that "tossing him because the community hates [that] he stands for marginalized people" while the real harassers remain isn't justice. They go on to say that they will be staying at Respawn and fight for those people in his place.

Beyond that, Gerber adds that the stress from this resulted in them miscarrying "a wanted pregnancy".

Interestingly, Klein left Riot in 2018 when they fired him for "violating [the company's] social media policy". This was in the wake of the reports on Riot's work environment. Reportedly, it may have also had something to do with Klein and another member of Riot staff keeping some events at PAX exclusive to women and non-binary people. The same reports also state that he was one of the employees who was outspoken about defending diversity efforts at the company.