Interview: "We are still developing new Legends," Apex Legends dev team states

Apex Legends Season 25 is out now, complete with the new playable Legend, Sparrow, the return of Arenas (albeit as an LTM), and much, much more — including some unfortunate bugs and crashes.

Ahead of Season 25, we sat down with the team at Respawn Entertainment to find out more about what players can expect from Season 25. The new season is already out and playable, of course, but here you can see what the developers expected the experience to be like ahead of launch. Make sure to read our full Apex Legends Season 25 preview, too.

These questions were issued prior to reports of layoffs at Respawn Entertainment.

DBLtap: I really like the look of Sparrow and I love Artemis even more, but it’s no secret that your release rate for new Legends has gone down in recent years. Has it become more difficult to create new characters while balancing the rest of the cast, and is that why we’ve seen fewer new Legends?

Evan Nikolich, senior design director: It is a balancing act of delivering new legends and creating high-impact moments. Our focus has been on trying to elevate our legend roster as a whole, over singular new legends. We are still developing new legends, and we have exciting opportunities ahead, all while taking our existing legends and making them fresh and exciting. We hope to have more Ash-like impacts across more of the existing roster AND deliver new exciting legends.

DBLtap: I used to be a really big fan of Arenas, so I’m glad to see it back. What are the main changes to the mode, and why choose now to bring it back?

Clement Bachellerie, lead game designer: We’re bringing it back because the community has been quite vocal about it for a while. Each time we do an update, there’s always someone in a comment or reaction section to ask for Arenas. Now is the time to answer! The main changes are the win condition, which has been simplified to the first to win three rounds and the breadth of content that renew Arenas gameplay: the new legends like Sparrow, Alter, Conduit, Ballistic, weapons like Akimbo and Bocek update... Later in the season, we’ll introduce some QoL to help with some of the problems the game mode had in the past, like the meta staleness. For example, we’ll introduce a ban & discount system on weapons to push players to try different guns and not fall back on always the same meta weapons. We also focused the purchasing space on interesting items by giving you health items by default. Finally, we also updated the care package rewards to make it a more worthwhile secondary objective.

DBLtap: I used to be a Pathfinder main, and I need to know: will the new Pathfinder changes make him my main again?

John Ellenton, senior game designer: Hopefully you’ll give Sparrow a try first, but I could see these changes bringing you back to Pathy.

DBLtap: Spinning off of the Pathfinder changes, which Legends do you think have had the most alterations and adjustments since launch?

John Ellenton, senior game designer: We’ve had a few legends that have gone through a lot of changes. Ballistic got buff after buff and is now in a pretty good spot, Bangalore has had a lot of little nerfs and Seer also has seen a lot of changes. 

DBLtap: Who is the Legend of Zelda fan that suggested adding Bomb Arrows to the game? Are players going to get ambushed by a barrage of these?

Eric Canavese, lead game designer: Are you really making video games if you don’t slam an explosive bow in there at some point? We’ve always wanted to experiment with alternative arrow heads and this season was the perfect opportunity to couple that with our archer legend Sparrow. I suspect we’ll see a healthy amount of explosive arrows blotting out the sun this season. 

DBLtap: Are the P2020 adjustments enough to stop their in-game dominance?

Eric Canavese, lead game designer: I definitely think the Accelerator and mag size changes are enough to dislodge the P2020’s from their remarkable lead, but I suspect we’ll continue to see them show up in loadouts because even with these changes they are a fun weapon that get the job done, and we don’t really want to change that, we just want to make sure they’re leaving enough room for other weapons to have a place in the killfeed. 

DBLtap: How do you anticipate the end game of high-level matches changing with the adjustments in the new season?

John Larson, game designer: Hopefully, we see P2020’s trend down with the magazine nerfs and the loss of the Accelerator Hop-Up. We’ll be monitoring this closely. I’m sure players will be excited to use the Bocek on the floor again, but its ammo limitations will likely prevent it from being completely dominant at range. In high-level Ranked, I expect to see Pathfinder back in the mix to join his “best girlfriend” Ash, with players experimenting with Sparrow’s place in the lineup. It will likely be a hyper mobile meta with Ash, Path, Wraith, and Alter all strong picks. In comp, I suspect Sparrow’s area denial ult to be strong in crowded endgames.