*Discussion* An Update on Apex Legends from Respawn - 04/25/19

[EA_Blueberry]

To say that the launch of Apex Legends exceeded our expectations would be an understatement. 50 million players in the first month (and more since) is staggering for any game, let alone a new IP from a relatively small team who were taking their first swing at a free-to-play game.

Rapid growth is a wonderful thing to achieve, and we’re thrilled with the response we’ve received since launch. However, that growth comes with some clear challenges, and we’ve hit a few bumps along the way, including missteps with our updates, not giving players enough visibility into future content, and not properly setting expectations on how we plan to support Apex Legends.

We are 100% committed to the long-term growth of Apex Legends, and supporting the millions playing every day. So today we want to reset our commitment to you and give you some insight into where we are as a development team and how we’re approaching live service for Apex Legends.

Getting a huge player base in a very short period means exploits, bugs, cheaters, and more come fast and frequently. We’ve had to react and direct resources to play whack-a-mole with lots of unexpected issues. Since launch, we’ve shipped a number of server and client patches that have addressed a range of issues.

While we’ve made some good progress towards a healthier game, as our community grows issues have come up that need to be addressed. The stability of Apex Legends is very important to us, and we’ve been doing a lot of work internally to improve our processes across the board. As we are getting our house in order, some of the critical things we’re prioritizing are:

Slow Server Performance at the Beginning of a Match

• So far, we know that it affects some datacenters more than others, it happens on many different server configurations, and it doesn't seem to hit multiple server instances running on the same machine. In other words, it's not that a machine is overloaded and everything on it is running too slow – it's that one instance on the same machine seems to be doing more work than the others, and we're trying to nail down what work it's doing and work backwards to understand the root cause. This is extremely high priority for us, and we'll keep you updated on our progress.

Audio Issues

• Currently testing some potential fixes that will hopefully address many of the performance issues we’ve seen reported.

Cheaters

• We’ve been doing a lot of work behind the scenes. This is something we will always be more secretive about to avoid telegraphing our moves to cheaters, but we’ll be sharing more on the progress made next week.

Hit Registration Issues

• We are adding engine features to help track down and report instances of incorrect hit registration in playtests so we can force the bug and reproduce the issue consistently. While we have made some progress with some fixes locally, more work needs to be done to address the root of the problem.

Over the next few weeks we’ll talk more about the work that’s being done in these areas and provide updates about when we’ll be addressing them in future patches.

We know that, in addition to addressing issues with the game, everyone is hungry for us to add new content. The studio culture that we’ve worked hard to cultivate, and the health of our team are very important. We take those things into account when we discuss our content roadmap, the production schedule, and the frequency in which we can update the game. Our long-term goal is to ensure Apex Legends always feels alive and thriving, with a focus on quality of content over novelty or speed of release. At the same time, we want to maintain our culture as a development team and avoid crunch that can quickly lead to burnout or worse.

At launch we shared a high-level view of our roadmap, showcasing how we would be taking a seasonal approach to live service. Today we want to provide more clarity on what you can expect for content and update cadence in the future:

Season Launches

• The beginning of each season will start big with a new Battle Pass, a new Legend, something new for the meta, and more.

Thoughtful Updates Throughout the Season

• Just as we've done since launch, we will continue to address exploits, necessary balance changes, bug fixes, and small features throughout the course of a season. For complete transparency, our goal isn't, and never has been, to patch or update content on a weekly basis. We believe strongly in the importance of large, meaningful changes to the game that have lasting impact, thus our focus on a seasonal release cadence we laid out at launch. We will continue to follow this cadence in the future.

Improved Communication

• We need to provide more visibility into the future, and what we’re working on. That doesn’t mean we’re going to start telling folks everything they want to know when they want to know it, but you can expect more transparency on future updates and fewer surprise drops.

At EA PLAY in June, we will give you the first details on what you can expect from Season 2. We’ve seen all the feedback on Season 1 and look forward to showing you the improvements we’re making. For Season 2 you can expect a Battle Pass with more meaningful content, the introduction of a new Legend, the debut of a new weapon . . . and you didn’t expect Kings Canyon to stay the same forever, did you?

Lastly, regarding other games in development at Respawn, it is important to understand that there are entirely separate development teams working on Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Additionally, in order to fully support Apex Legends, we are pushing out plans for future Titanfall games. No resources from the Apex Legends team are being shifted to other titles in development here at the studio, nor are we pulling resources from the team working on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

We know we have a lot of work ahead of us, but we’re up to the challenge and are looking forward to building Apex Legends to its full potential together with our players.

Drew McCoy
Executive Producer
Apex Legends

(Source) (Reddit Discussion)

[Fiesta187]

Nothing new in there... 0 talk about ranked games, leaderboards or MMR. Also 0 talk about solo/duos or a new game mode.

Dont wanna sound rude, but this is the same BS we been hearing since day 1.

[EA_Blueberry]

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@Fiesta187 wrote:
Nothing new in there... 0 talk about ranked games, leaderboards or MMR. Also 0 talk about solo/duos or a new game mode.

Dont wanna sound rude, but this is the same BS we been hearing since day 1.

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dko5 responded to a similar question about that here.

[warslag]

Thanks for the update.

I think quite a lot of Apex players were probably expecting "slow server performance at the beginning of a match" to have been fixed by now. It's not game breaking but it is very noticeable sometimes. Which means players do latch onto it as part of a group of frustrations they experience in Apex. When it's sorted out it will go a long way to improving the general mood.

Cheating is a pain in the neck but there have been improvements. Obviously some regions seem to have worse cheating than other from the posts I've read on here.

I would certainly like to see better options for adding and managing friends. I really don't like the way Origin keeps minimising my game when I get notification although it does seems that the notification spam has stopped. So thanks for that.

Some parts of the menu and in game UI could possibly be tweaked so that players can find things a little more easily. I'm thinking of the slightly clunky way we have to navigate through the menu to find something because the sections of the menu are ordered in a linear way rather than stacking and expanding menus if that makes sense. Even pre-selecting a Legend before even joining matchmaking is a bit clunky. I guess games have their own characteristic menus though.

I guess most players are going to say "where's solos"? Or "where's the new content?" Well, the devs are taking their time and that's fine by me but new content would be great and very welcome.

Players leaving is annoying and could do with a look at. Again, it's an irritation rather than game breaking and can be solved by playing with friends.

I will definitely check out more of Respawn's games even though I'm usually a one game at a time kind of gamer. The Star Wars game and Titanfall are in my sights. I would get Access Premier if there were more top games that I was interested in. Usually it's Battlefield and FIFA with some other games that are similarly priced but not as convincing. Hopefully Respawn will start adding some top notch games to that list. They probably did already but I didn't realise they were good.

[OPL3XITY]

Thank you for the update Drew ! It's greatly appreciated.

There we go guys. The studio will now be more transparent and communicative. I feel like most of the announcement is fairly positive. To me, the negative part is this one:

"We believe strongly in the importance of large, meaningful changes to the game that have lasting impact, thus our focus on a seasonal release cadence we laid out at launch. We will continue to follow this cadence in the future."

Part of the community has voiced concerns about the lack of content ingame and the frequency at which this content is added and this statement just straight up answers these requests with : "Nothing will change on that regard". 

"The studio culture that we’ve worked hard to cultivate, and the health of our team are very important. We take those things into account when we discuss our content roadmap, the production schedule, and the frequency in which we can update the game"

No one can argue with the fact that overworking the team is wrong. Was the word "can" purposely chosen to show that there is a bottleneck coming from EA investments? If Respawn had more funds, they could make the team grow and ultimately deliver more!

Everything considered, I am grateful for this update. The positivity and transparency it brings was long expected. Thanks!

[TheGreenFellow]

I apprecipate this kind of communique.

The one thing that stands out to me, is that - if at all possible - bugfixing, QOL, and similarly small tweaks (like that colorblind stuff mentioned on Reddit) ought to appear more often than what you seem to be saying with "large, meaningful" patches that come out at a lower interval. If it's stuff that won't seriously hamper your larger patches in the pipeline (or adversely impact people's workload), and directly addresses bugs/glitches that players can see up-front every day they play the game, I think that's worthwhile to get out sooner in more frequent mini-hotfixes.

I'm on board with the rest of what y'all have to say, your heads are in the right place (even if I do still disagree on having a 'weapon' curve and the meaning of the Wingman in particular), and it's refreshing to have a game company willing to not just listen, but to respond, react, show us your point of view & carry a discussion with the community at large - no easy task when there's millions of voices to pick out from, I have to admit.


edit: P.S. Solo mode & training mode improvements when?

[BetOnBoogie]

I am happy to see that Respawn is acknowledging the hunger the community has for this game, and have finally begun to bridge the communication gap. I am also thrilled to see a company that takes into consideration its workers as well as their players. Like any relationship communication is key.

Unfortunately, the video game world has become spoiled with patches and updates, and "balance and equality" for all players. Older generation gamers understand the struggle of a game being released and that was that. Maybe a small Title Update somewhere down the line (a year+ from the release date) to tweak the game. I care more for Developers that care about the game they are creating as well as the community they are creating it for. The key to keeping everyone happy is communication and conversation.

That being said here are some things that could be taken into consideration. I understand there are still restraints on what can be disclosed, but here it goes:

- If seasonal updates are the route Respawn is going towards, maybe you can consider releasing multiple Legends in a season (2 Legends MAX) one in the beginning and another in the middle of the season.

- Maybe consider updating the store. After all it is a business right? Instead of releasing cosmetics for purchase that are already in the game, why not try and make more exclusive skins and quips accordingly? Evening allowing us to purchase Craft Metals using Legend Points would be nice

- Give the players some incentive. Weekly Challenges with XP boosts, Crafting Metals, or Legend Points as rewards.

- Instead of weekly updates maybe consider giving the community a weekly/biweekly News update on what we can expect, or what Respawn is working on, or even to just simply open up a conversation with the community and developers about recent patches, and updates.

- New Maps and Biomes: I know you've already hinted at this in the thread above, but simple changes to the map or additions of new battle arenas can easily keep player interested.

I am as anxious as every other Apex player, but as long as the communication is there and the Devs stay as true to the community as possible, then I can see this game having a bright future. I would love for a true dedicated competitive scene come out of this Title.

Hope my suggestions are taken into consideration!

[FaZaaa_82]

I'm quiting this hacker infested game, i may come back if they manage to ever clear it up but for now its a joke players with 7.7k kills with cheats running around that just tells me they dont care about cheaters in my eyes.

[x1337xGhostx]

Couldn't agree more. Was thinking the same thing. All I keep hearing is excuses. Release new content already! Work overtime doing it and collect a fat paycheck. Doesn't seem to difficult to me.

[xpl0its]

@EA_Blueberry

I want to say I am very grateful that EA takes the time to let the Community know what it is doing, afterall you don't have to. Please take a moment to let those know you work around at EA that I am grateful, and many of us are, tell them we are thankful for what you do, truly I mean it!

If you are not paying money into this game, then there's no excuse for any rude attitudes towards EA/Respawn, they have given you a FREE GAME!

If any of you are [Removed - CM] or crying do you have any idea at how much work and difficulty gaming development is? Because I do, so cut these people some slack and be thankful you live in a world where people give you an amazing game for free and be happy with whatever you have!

No one is forcing anyone to play the game, you have problems, don't like it, then give some CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK - REPORT BUGS and help out!

Developers need a Good Community of support, why do you think they have a BUG REPORT section? Because Developers will never see all the bugs an entire World Wide Community will see, so now that you realize it, play a part and help!

@EA_Blueberry I know all the things this company faces and what needs to be done on many levels, but sometimes everyone has to step back and take a breath.

1. What is going to be fixed in the shortest amount of time to effect player satisfaction the most?

Player Satisifaction needs to be a big goal, keeping people happy, but in the meantime while trying to acheive this, I see a SOLOUTION that should already of been in place, that might give people some joy!

I mentioned this before, the "Friends" system that is in Ring of Elysium makes it easy to add and remove players as Friends, see them playing online and send invite requests while gaming.

EA/Respawn should really put on a High Priority a better "Friends" System in Apex like Ring of Elysium, and do you know why? Because people want to belong, and when people have a better ability to be a part of the Apex Gaming Community within the Game and I don't mean Origin, then the game will grow even better.

So Apex needs a better "Friends System"!

The only thing you can do in the Apex is just invite the last persons you played with, and this is not enough of a "Friends System", it needs to get better!

THANKS EA/RESPAWN, keep up the great work, I love APEX!