Respawn Re-iterates Anti-Crunch Commitment For Apex Legends Development

Respawn Entertainment still isn't rushing out Apex Legends content, and that's good news for the health of its team. Just a few months after the game launched, Executive Producer Drew McCoy talked about the game's long-term goals, which included the desire to "avoid crunch that can quickly lead to burnout or worse," even if that meant fewer or slower content updates.

That sentiment was echoed in an AMA earlier this week, where Game Director Chad Grenier responded to a rather salty request for more limited-time modes ("you guys are scared" and "extremely slow with content"). Grenier said that LTMs are "popular for a couple of days and have severe falloff," so increasing them wasn't necessarily the right move. With regards to the speed of development, he had this to say:

"We also refuse to crunch the team, so we'll probably be slower at making content than if we worked 15 hour days but that's just not something we're willing to do. We have nearly doubled our team size since launch to accommodate the content demands, so we're really trying to bring you quality content at a healthy pace."

Despite the rather ... contentious ... replies to Gerenier, including another person calling him a liar and "This subreddit can bet VERY toxic," Respawn must be doing something right with Apex Legends, which Electronic Arts said is on pace to become a billion-dollar-a-year franchise.